Of course, I visited the Hope Diamond, although I didn't try and push through the huge crowd to see it up close, but there's not a whole lot to study about a big blue rock. I went to see the dinos and the other big exhibits, but it felt to me that the majority of the museum was simply filler for a few popular items. Of course, there was quite a bit of construction going on, but most of the galleries were open. I guess everything really does seem a lot bigger when you're a kid. Perhaps I had simply visited too many other natural history museums with other approaches. At least I can say that I learned the average height of an Egyptian woman in 500 BC.

Wrong. The newly-renovated display in the Rotunda gives credit to another. I felt saddened by my disillusionment.

However, there are numerous birds and mammals bagged by Roosevelt in the Smithsonian, which houses the world’s largest collection of mammals and the third-largest ornithological collection.

Back in his boyhood, T.R. had his own small natural history museum, with birds and animals he skinned and prepared himself after learning taxidermy from the man who once worked for Audubon. Young Roosevelt was above all things an enthusiastic naturalist; at one point he contemplated going into some branch of the natural sciences. Of course, he took quite a different path, but the boyish naturalist was never far below the veneer of the politician.

In 1909, having seen his designated successor, Taft, follow him as president, Roosevelt set out on a collecting trip in East Africa sponsored by the Smithsonian. He and his son Kermit between them shot 512 specimens, most of which went to the Smithsonian.

The truth of the matter, however, is that Roosevelt was not the best of shots. Myopic from birth, he later concealed the fact that he’d lost sight completely in his left eye during a boxing accident at the White House. But he was an undisputed authority on big game, and he more than compensated for his poor vision by his courage and cunning as a hunter. His tales of hunting grizzlies out west and stalking lions in Africa make thrilling reading.

Unfortunately, on my most recent trip to the Smithsonian, the Mammal Hall had been closed for much-needed renovation, so I was foiled in my search for possible Roosevelt specimens. I made do by visiting the African ethnographic exhibit, the Orkin Bug Museum (a personal favorite), and a stroll through the revamped Gem and Mineral Hall, all the while recalling that Roosevelt had been a pan-enthusiast: bugs, minerals, fossils, you name it – if it had to do with natural phenomena, he collected it.

Roosevelt once wrote, "Life is a great adventure…accept it in such spirit." It was his willingness to accept one last great adventure that proved his undoing, however. In 1913, he joined an expedition to Brazil, on a 900-mile journey through the jungle and up the uncharted "River of Doubt" (later renamed Rio Roosevelt in his honor). He nearly died en route. His health shattered, he suffered recurring bouts of malaria until his premature death six years later.

His family and friends had pleaded with him not to go. He had to, he replied. "It is my last chance to be a boy again."

That quality of being a boy never left him. "The thing you have to remember about the President," said his good friend Cecil Spring Rice, "is that he’s about six."

And yet surely, in a way, that was a compliment.

We started our tour at the newly opened Kenneth E. Benning Family Hall of Mammals. This exhibit was very cool as there were many different species on exhibit (most of them were stuffed, but that is another topic). My favorites were the cats as I am a cat lover. A leopard that carried an impala to a tree to eat, a tiger at attacking position, a mountain lion standing up on its two feets to catch prey... There was a short film on mammals and how the mammals evolved and how we benefited from the extinction of the dinosaurs.

After the Hall of Mammals we went to the second floor and visited the exhibit on South America. This exhibit was not as crowded as the other exhibits and the artifacts were interesting and the setting informed us of what were some of the important civilizations in South America, and how the indigenous people live.

Next to this exhibit was the exhibit on Geology, Gems, and Minerals. This was one of my favorite exhibits. All the colorful mineral, crystals and gems took me to a fairy land. I would never have guessed that there were so many brilliantly colored minerals in this planet of ours. There were even metals from space (samples from moon and the meteorites). Although there were lots of information on meteorites, all that information was over my head. I simply admired the different geometric shapes they all had when cut in the middle.

And finally we saw the Hope Diamond. Now I am changing the name of Hope Diamond to the "Diamond of Abdulhamit the Second," one of the last emperors of the Ottoman Empire as he had this diamond on his belt. In 1911 it was sold in auction. I was jealous that this big, blue perfect diamond did not belong to the Topkapi Museum. It would look so nice next to the Kasikci Diamond. Well, I guess we can't always have what we want.

We ended our visit at the Ancient Seas, which hosted giant fossilized squids, and the Dinosaurs. My husband was especially interested in the T-Rex and other dinosaurs. As I wasn't raised with the names of the dinosaurs seeing the fossils of this giant animals did not thrill me as a 4 year old who could count all 40 names for them. The IMAX film on T-Rex informed me a little bit...but I guess I am too old...I've already forgotten the names.

The IMAX film is titled "T-REX: Back to the Cretaceous" and it is in 3D (3 dimension). I guess I don't have to tell you that my husband loved the film...

Tucked off in a small corner of the immense Smithsonian National Museum of American History is a quiet, dimly lit room. Few of the thousands of visitors streaming through the museum daily pause to consider the exhibit within, "An Odyssey in Print: Adventures in the Smithsonian Library." Most are too intent in their search for Muhammad Ali's boxing gloves or Dorothy's ruby slippers to give the small exhibit a second glance. Alas, they're missing perhaps their sole opportunity to glimpse what lies at heart of this vast institution: the Smithsonian's twenty-two research libraries.

The Smithsonian is sometimes fondly referred to as "America's Attic," with over 142 million objects in its collection. While only (only?) 1.5 million of these objects are books, the libraries' holdings are equalled in their breadth and depth by their historical importance. The collections are particularly well-developed in the traditional strengths of the Smithsonian: natural history, the history of science and technology, anthropology, art, and decorative arts. Nothing is added to the collection without carefully considering its merits.

While physical access to the various Smithsonian libraries is restricted to museum staff and pre-approved researchers, a great deal of the collection is available through an ambitious online library. Still, the uncredentialed bibliophile longs to cast eyes on the real books, not content with those pale imitations rendered in pixels. Happily, the Smithsonian showcases some of the libraries' gems, displaying them in rotation in a small exhibit space just outside the Dibner Library of the History of Science and Technology.

The "Odyssey in Print" exhibit takes as its theme the journey all scientists, inventors, and artists undertake as they embark on personal odysseys of discovery. Arrayed throughout the room are glass cases containing books, manuscripts, and ephemera divided into three broad themes: Journeys over Land and Sea, Journeys of the Mind, and Journeys of the Imagination. Felicitous juxtapositions abound in the display. A spaceman aiming a ray-gun at insect-like space aliens in a Buck Rogers in the 25th Century pop-up book from the 1930's lies beside a copy of First on the Moon signed by Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, and Michael Collins. Pasteur's microsope and a first edition of Darwin's On the Origin of the Species keep company. Ptolemy, the Wright Brothers, Jules Verne, Linnaeus, Kepler, Newton, Goddard, Lindhberg… whispers from such illustrious mental voyagers seem to float through the room, as if escaping their glass sarcophagi to mingle in a gentle susurration of thought.

The "Odyssey" exhibit runs through December 2003 and consists of a rotating "three-part expedition." The items currently on display illustrate how the world has been imagined and perceived as Europeans and Americans pushed the boundaries of what is imagined into the realm of what is known, producing books that shook the foundations of science and launched humankind on trajectories of wonder.

Covering 16 acres with 300,000 square feet of exhibition space, this is one of the most inclusive museums anywhere. Considering its scale, you could never see -- let alone comprehend -- it all. Like the other museums of the Smithsonian Institution, this one also requires a plan of attack. Choose what you want to see and head for it immediately. Only after you've seen your own particular choices should you allow yourself to be distracted by its many other amazing exhibits.

Visiting the Museum
Starting from the rotunda, which you can't miss considering the gigantic African elephant at its center, you can easily find your way to the exhibition halls. You have the bewildering choice of the following:

Ground (1st) Floor
Mammals
Marine Eco-systems - with a life-size model of a blue whale and a living coral reef
Cultural Regions Exhibits - includes Native Cultures of the Americans and Asian & Pacific Cultures
Ice Age Mammals - see fossilized mammoth skeletons or example
Dinosaurs - watch out for the suspended pterosaur with its 40 foot wingspan

Second Floor
Mining Gallery - a preplicated mine shaft with exposed veins of minerals
Plate tectonics - excellent!
Moon, meteorites and solar system
Insect zoo

The Janet Annenberg Hooker Hall of Geology, Gems, and Minerals
Perhaps the single most spectacular exhibit in the entire museum, the astonishing collection of gems within the Hall of Minerals would be an admirable crown jewel collection if the country were an empire or a kingdom. Many of the high points of the exhibit, which by the way were donated to the museum by Janet Annenberg Hooper, are as follows:

The Hope Diamond
This is the showpiece of the collection. This flawless 45.5 carat stone, the largest blue diamond in the world, is surrounded by a ring of round brilliant-cut white stones on a diamond studded chain. This stone has a checkered history and has been considered cursed for centuries. It was given to the Smithsonian by New York jeweler, Harry Winston, in the 1960s.

The Star of Asia Sapphire
Found in Sri Lanka, this flawless sapphire weighs a phenomenal 330 carats.

The Hooker Emerald
This spectacular stone weighs in at 75 carats and is set in a brooch containing 138 diamonds.

Photographer's Note:
These photos were hand-held with an Olympus D-460Z digital, which is remarkable in low-light. No filtration or flash but some mild color temperature adjustment and cropping in Photoshop 6.0.

It is also possible to go to the IMAX theatre and catch a 3D movie about the Galapagos Islands. You will find yourself reaching out to touch the marine iguanas sunning on the rocky shoreline. It is an experience that you will cherish.