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Bones, teeth and really old rocks: How finding fossils takes me out of myself Meredith Rizzo, National Public Radio, October 17, 2022 Fossils in the architecture of Washington, D.C Fossils in Architecture National Building Museum, March 26, 2014 Yours, Paul H.

Here's Where You Can Find D.C.'s 'Accidental Museum' Of Fossils by Jacob Fenston, WAMU in Curiosities, August 3, 2018 http://dcist.com/2018/08/theres_a_fossil_museum_in_dc_but_it.php http://dcist.com/ Yours, Paul H.

I finally have time to post a report from last weekends trip. My wife wanted to take the boys to Washington DC to see the monuments and visit the museum. She said we could go fossil hunting for a day. So I chose Purse state park since I have only been there once. We stayed in Waldorf, arriving late friday night. Saturday morning we headed to the Potomac. We ended up at Douglas point. I didn't know at the time that it was a mile and a half to get to the beach! My wife and kids were crabbing when they realized what a walk it was. Once we got to the beach everyone was happy. I really liked it there and immediately started searching. I found a couple small teeth right away. My boys just wanted to swim for awhile but soon joined in on the hunt. A guy walked by we spoke for a minute and then he left. A couple seconds later he yells over to me and points out a big black snake climbing vertically up the cliff! It was a very cool sight! The gentleman left and we got back to the hunt. My wife finally joined us and we all were finding teeth. And there were tons of rayplates. After awhile the same gentleman came back and asked how we were doing. Then he pulls out the biggest Otodus I have ever seen. He said he just pulled it out of a debris pile. The tooth was so huge. Extremely thick blade and root. It was missing one cusp and part of the root, but still impressive. Of course that got the blood flowing. So we all got hunting, but no huge teeth for us. The highlight for me was finding my first croc tooth. Though not big it is complete and is not waterworn. Its between 3/8-1/2 inch. Then I found a bigger one but this was very beatup. We stayed for about three hours and then we all got hungry and decided to get lunch. When I got back to the car I looked down and noticed a tick on my calf! Luckily I noticed it before it bit me, so it was easy to remove! The next day we drove to DC and saw the sites. The highlight for me was the Museum of Natural History. Mainly because it has all the Gem and fossils. It even has a super nice Dipleura from New York! After we got back to the hotel, My wife said that on monday she wanted to do something before we headed home so I suggested going to Flag Ponds Nature Park. We didn't find a lot of teeth but I did find tons of coral. The boys were content with swimming until Devin got stung by a jellyfish! At that point it was time to go. All in all it was a very nice time to spend with family. Though short, it was sweet. I wish I would have taken more pics, but I always get too caught up in the moment. I hope you enjoy the ones I did take.

So while we are upset that the main fossil area (the National Fossil Hall) of the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History is closed for a multi-year renovation until 2019 (though I'll admit that it did need it...I remembered a lot of the exhibits from my childhood), we were thrilled that there's a new temporary exhibit titled "The Last American Dinosaurs: Discovering a Lost World," which focused on the Hell Creek Formation - where my family will be doing a few dino digs this summer! https://naturalhistory.si.edu/fossil-hall/last-american-dinosaurs/ This exhibit featured fossils from the museum's 2013 expedition. They also had the requisite paleonotologist-on-display: