Winter Wonderland at the Botanic Garden

Smithsonian Castle

The US Botanic Garden is once again having its annual holiday exhibit, "Windows to Wonderland." There are two parts to this exhibit: first, there's a collection of adorable replicas of the monuments made out of bark, pinecones, leaves, gourds, etc. Second, there's a delightful room of trains running across elevated bridges and through fantasy villages with names like "Gremlin Corner" and "Caterpillar Garden."

The Capitol

The mini Capitol was pretty impressive, but it lacked its north and south wings, which went on at the same time as the current dome. So historically, it was inaccurate - which is kind of odd if you consider that the Botanic Garden is run by the Architect of the Capitol! I am pretty sure something else was awry with the Capitol model as well. The facade in the photo above looks more like the East front, and the statue of Lady Freedom atop the dome should be facing East (toward the Supreme Court, not the Mall), which she is. But there is also an equestrian statue in front of it, which appears to be the Grant Memorial - which is on the West side, located at the end of the Mall.

Maybe I'm uber-nitpicky, since we were looking at a replica, de-winged Capitol with bark and pinecones glued on it. But either Lady Freedom was facing the wrong way, or the Grant Memorial was in the wrong place, or it wasn't the Grant Memorial at all but some other equestrian monument I've never observed.

The White House

I particularly liked the miniature Smithsonian Castle, which in real life is a ridiculous pseudo-gothic bouquet of turrets, but translates nicely to dollhouse size. The all-natural White House didn't turn out very white, but the Jefferson Memorial had a very convincing dome made from a dried gourd.

The Jefferson Memorial

I wish I could have gotten better pictures of the trains, but it was a zoo on opening day of the exhibit. Honestly, I was most excited when we walked out into the grounds, where we could clearly see the inauguration stage being constructed on the steps of the Capitol a short distance away. Woohoo!

The Botanic Garden Conservatory is open from 8-5pm, including weekends and holidays (!). During the holidays, it's open until 8pm on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Visit their website for more info. It's a stone's throw from the Capitol, and usually less busy than the Smithsonian museums.

The Botanic Garden Conservatory

Tuesday Dec 2 is also the grand opening of the brand-new Capitol visitor center. If you're in DC over the holidays, go see that, too, before the Hordes of Inauguration descend upon us January 20, and we can't see anything at all. It's gonna be crowded in this city!