Friday, January 29, 2010

Washington, D.C. January 2010

Days in Washington D.C. include:

Watching the Rink Guards at the Sculpture Garden trying to corral a passel of schoolchildren into a picture in front of the National Archives.

Posing in front of a new sculpture in the same place: a tree made out of stainless steel.

Merging Dave into the picture of the Saltimboques at the National Gallery of Art.

Enjoying a new take on Van Gogh's Bedroom at Arles in the East Wing of the National Gallery of Art.

Watching Calder's mobile move; same place.

Seeing Julia Child's kitchen in the Smithsonian's American History Museum.

Enjoying Thiebaud's cakes.

Framing up Whistler's Lady in White through the doorways of the National Gallery of Art.

Eating a lunch of quinoa, barley, Japanese noodles, beets, greens and a roasted tomato--a delicious offering from the National Gallery of Art Cafe, downstairs by the waterfall.

Checking out the icicles on the railing by the waterfall (I took this from inside--they were outside!).

Photographing the details of the renovated National Portrait Gallery.

Seeing a Thiebaud landscape for the first time (I'd only seen his food pictures).

Admiring the floating roof over the courtyard of this same building, reminiscent of the roof over the courtyard of the British Museum.

Wandering the Great Hall in the National Portrait Gallery, thinking about Lincoln's guests at his Inaugural Ball doing the same so many many years ago, when it was the Patent Museum.

Going to dinner with Dave's nephew Nathan and his new wife Michelle, who then took us over to a very cold (and quick!) visit at 10:00 p.m. to the Pentagon Memorial. We were back in the car in a flash as it was a balmy 19 degrees, with a stiff wind.

Surviving the predicted 1" of snow, which turned out to be 6" !

I'm coming home tomorrow, if all goes well. They canceled all Super Shuttle busses to the airport before 1 p.m. and the "sedan driver" charges two arms and a leg. So we're hotfooting it to a Metro station, then catching the bus to the airport, and then home, where hopefully, there will be no snow.

4 comments:

Artax said...

Looks like fun, maybe except for all that snow? But also wondering about the date in your title....

Letterpress said...

Date changed! The cold's frozen the brain--thanks for the reminder.

Judy said...

I was feeling envious of all those wonderful places and paintings and food, and then you mentioned the snow. Suddenly, there's no place like home.

La Asistente said...

Who did the floating roof? I love it. Kudos to you for braving the cold, cold in DC. Want to stop in Chicago to compare temperatures?