National Museum of Natural History

The National Museum of Natural History is one of Smithsonian's first buildings built to house collections and research facilities.

Established in 1910, the museum contains more than 126 million natural science specimen and cultural artifacts. It can take more than a month to examine everything within the museum, from the collection of butterflies to dinosaur bones and the Hope Diamond.

The good part is, like anything at the Smithsonian, admission is free. So take your time, focus on one section each visit, and eventually you'll have completed the entire museum's permanent collection. However, it may be impossible to cover the whole museum, since the museum continues to add pieces from its storage facilities and also hosts traveling exhibitions throughout the year.

Upon entering the museum, you'll be greeted by a giant elephant (which is on display, it is not a talking mascot). The elephant alone will let you know what kind of visit you're in for. Inside, the museum is  divided into various science departments, including anthropology, botany, entomology, invertebrate zoology, mineral sciences, paleobiology, and vertebrate zoology (birds, fishes, mammals, reptiles and amphibians).

The wow factor is always in the dinosaur exhibits, where you can walk among the old bones of a Tyrannosaurus Rex and imagine beasts of extraordinary size wandering around outside on the National Mall (or wherever they originated). There are also ancient sea creature fossils and bones whose teeth size can easily humble anyone, and flying creatures whose wingspan will also leave you  happy they went extinct when they did.

There are many other fascinating treasures that perhaps you've only ever seen in pictures before, including a slab of a giant sequoia tree, moon rocks, whale skull DNA, giant squid, fossilized pollen, ancient spear points, Chinese shoes, and Eskimo clothing.

Another fascinating exhibit is the Hall of Human Origins, which recently opened as a new permanent collection. It tells the story of human evolution over six million years, and how humans adapted to their changing world accordingly. Move over to the Sant Ocean Hall, and visitors can explore the vast underwater world. The Hall highlights the biological, geological and anthropological expertise and scientific collections, and how the ocean connects to other global systems and human lives.

HelloWashingtonDC Tip: The museum offers interactive activities, virtual tours, lectures, and highly coveted volunteer and internship positions. There's ongoing research in several other locations around the country and the world, including underwater, the African Rift Valley, the South American rainforests, the deserts of Central Asia and peak of the Andes, where researchers search for clues of human and other life origins, minerals, artwork, fossils and plant specimens. Many of their results are found in the museum today.

- by Rin-rin Yu, Washington Reporter for HelloMetro  (Click to leave a message)

Rin-rin Yu

Rin-rin is an award-winning writer and journalist based in the Baltimore-Washington area. Her work has appeared in China Daily, DAYSPA magazine, Luxury Home Design, Aquatics International, Not For Tourists and other publications. Rin-rin has also worked for ABC News, WHDH-TV (NBC) in Boston and Hanley Wood Business Media. She has a master's degree from the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University. She is an avid world traveler and maintains a travel blog, www.mytravelhats.com.