They've gone city, part two

Have you seen enough air and space things yet?  No, no you have not!  Which is why the parents and I actually found a parking spot right by the Air & Space Museum (!) and continued to explore the fascination that is air and space amazingness.  I actually do really love the Air & Space Museum and could spend excessive amounts of time in there.  I am truly my father's child.  We were fascinated by missiles (although apparently not the ones my dad worked on back in his Army days)...

...and played space flight director...

...and marveled at what the Wright brothers managed to put in the air...

...and took a break for lunch by going over to National Museum of the American Indian, which (1) is conveniently located right next to the Air & Space Museum, (2) is WAY tastier than McDonald's, (3) gave us a chance to feed the parking meter, (4) provided a minor break from the airplanes because food ranks right up there with airplanes on Dad's awesomeness-meter...and then we went back and were generally fascinated by all manner of aircraft.

After the airplanes, we rested and chilled with Harry before having a lovely dinner with Dana at District Chophouse.  The Texans and the New Yorker are equally fascinated by each other and the vast differences in natural habitats, I assure you.

More D.C. adventures...after we slept in a little bit the next day, which was truly lovely.  If you know me at all, you know how I feel about weekend mornings accompanied by the addiction I just can't, and frankly don't want to, kick (ever!) coffee.  It was remarkably rejuvenating.  And then...on to the D.C. adventures.  For a more chill museum experience after surviving what is one of America's most-visited museums (on a Saturday, eeekk!), Mom suggested the National Portrait Gallery and American Art Museum, which I love for that very reason - it is pretty chill.  It's also remarkably close to my apartment - score one more.  I mean, just look at the quiet peacefulness, whether it's folksy Americana...

...or a couple of Bushes hanging out, undergoing a close inspection by Dad...

...or a gallery so free of other people that we managed to get Dad to strike a pose.

Ahhhh, I can hear the silence now.  Well, except for the talking garbage cans in the courtyard, which are quite possibly the most polite trash cans ever as they slowly proclaim "thank you" for every piece of trash that goes in.  Mom made a movie of me throwing away our snack trash.  Not gonna lie, my acting skills were kinda awesome there.  It's what won me the part over Dad.  We also spent some quality time in the gift shop and then found a pony for Dad.

We had a special dinner planned for that night per Mom's request for "a place where they dump seafood on the table and you get to whack it."  I've got just the place, Mom.  Last summer I met up with work buddy Stephanie along with her husband and a friend at Quarterdeck in Arlington, which I don't know if I would have discovered otherwise.  Total dive, and an excellent place to get a bunch of steamed crabs and attack them with a mallet.  Well...if you like that kind of thing.  I think Dad had a comment along the lines of "anything that only gives up 10% of its body weight in edible mumble mumble whack whack at crab..."  Let's just say that Dad really enjoyed the appetizers of crab balls and onion rings (can you say two kinds of deep fried deliciousness??), his side of baked potato, and our shared pitcher of Miller Lite, likely because they were all immediately consumable and required no excessive amount of work to get from hand to mouth.  It does take some effort to get out the crabby deliciousness, but once you get the technique down and dip it in butter...oh yum.  Please enjoy the photo spread from the evening (with a notable lack of photographic evidence from the portion of the evening where my fingers were covered with crab goo and were in no way suitable to touch the camera).

Prepare to attack...

Yeah, I made a smiley face out of grease...yipes....

WHAT are we supposed to do with those??

The final verdict

On the way home from the seafood dining adventures, we made a stop at the Marine Corps War Memorial, which depicts the raising of the flag at Iwo Jima.  We managed to get some quiet time in between the buses of tourists arriving and leaving on a very military schedule, and I managed to take about a million shots demonstrating my need for a tripod in order to actually get really good night shots.  For now I'll settle for this.

For our last day together in D.C. (boo), we had two very important items to tackle:  tube meats and old pieces of paper.  Sounds fascinating, doesn't it?  Maybe I should rephrase that as...quintessential street food dining in the form of a street cart hot dog...

...a trip through the National Archives, which unfortunately now prohibits photography in any way, shape, or form in any of the exhibits, so I don't really have much to show you there...except us eating the aforementioned hot dogs right outside the National Archives...

...and a food stop at a D.C. dining institution, Ben's Chili Bowl, where we made short work of some loaded half-smokes, managed to make a dent in the massive amount of fries loading our table, and shared a tasty piece of pound cake.  Yes, we were very, very full when we left.

I really didn't want them to leave, but after one last stop at home to say goodbye to their grandfurchild, it was time to drop off the parental units at their rental car so they could drive down to visit the other child in North Carolina.  So glad you finally made it to D.C., Mom & Dad - hope you enjoyed it as much as I did.

Side note - why do I feel compelled to blog about things in chronological order?  I'm guessing it has something to do with the same genetic makeup that compels me to be an accountant.  At any rate, last weekend I drove approximately 1,000 miles and moved my sister from Durham, NC to Brooklyn, NY.  Definitely a blog-worthy experience you'll hear alllllll about soon.  And I leave for Dallas (SUPER YAY!!!!!) Thursday morning, so let's see if I can manage to squeeze it in for posting before then.

Blossom-tastic Easter weekend goodness

I know a lot of people who head home for Easter weekend, in the midst of tax craziness and all, because it's important to be with family and celebrate these holidays.  I wasn't in the financial frame of mind to journey halfway across the country for a quick weekend (especially since my parents will be here in THREE WEEKS!!  Watch out, DC, the Bryans are coming to town!), so instead...a wonderful friend from NYC came in for the weekend, and I had Easter dinner with my surrogate DC family (we had ribs...yes, my surrogate DC family is most definitely from Texas...amen).  All in all, really not a bad way to go, especially with the impeccable spring weather Mother Nature bestowed upon the Mid-Atlantic region.

As much as I love Bolt Bus for its reasonable prices and mostly reasonable service, sometimes...sometimes traffic just happens on the Friday of a holiday weekend.  And buses leave NYC twenty minutes late and are then hit by a car on the congested highways, resulting in a little "let's pull over and file the accident report" time.  Poor Judy.  But you know what?  She finally made it!!  We celebrated her arrival and the generally gorgeous weather by heading down the street to a patio and immediately ordering both red wine and chocolate cake (commonly known remedies to travel weariness). 

Saturday morning dawned a little cloudy, so we waited it out with a combination of (1) sleeping in, which you can never have too much of, (2) cinnamon rolls, courtesy of the Pillsbury Dough Boy and entirely delicious, and (3) copious amounts of coffee (the last of my coffee of the month coffee!  I'm a little saddened by this) before heading a couple of blocks over to the National Portrait Gallery and American Art Museum for some culture and air conditioning.  Have I mentioned how much I love that I live just a few blocks from this place?  I think I have.  It's one of my favorite places in the city.  The Lincoln inaugural exhibit has now been replaced by something slightly less fascinating, which is a little disappointing, but they have so many interesting exhibits and the fantastic courtyard.  Love it.  We worked our way through the Presidential portraits...

...marveled at natural wonders...

The Grand Canyon is THIS BIG!!

...and also made it over to the modern and contemporary exhibits, which included some bright and enlightening Texas time.

 

After a stop at Legal Sea Foods for lunch and a D-list (or possibly lower - what's below D-list?) celebrity sighting in the form of Tennille, former Hell's Kitchen contestant now heading the kitchen at that particular location of a chain seafood restaurant, we started our cherry blossom journey.  The Tidal Basin is the place to be with cherry blossoms in every direction as far as the eye can see, and while it was bound to be mobbed with hordes of people, we knew we wanted to brave it for the photo ops.

We managed to survive the crazy-busy Metro ride to the Smithsonian stop...and proceeded to enjoy the beauty.  Yes, there's a part of me that knows I've done this before, several times, and fought the crowds and agonized over the massive amounts of people and general craziness of the entire event...but it really is beautiful.  Judy and I had a fantastic time taking in the fluffy blossoms and finding the perfect location for a blossom glamour shots.

After working our way through Blossom Central and walking walking walking, we slowly made our way back home (with a minor stop at H&M along the way, of course) and promptly proceeded to fall asleep upon reaching the living room.  All of that walking walking walking is exhausting!  Not wanting to get all exciting again, we ordered a pizza from Matchbox and headed out to pick it up.  And proceeded to take in one of the better fireworks shows I've seen as we paused at the corner of 6th and H to take in the fireworks show, apparently associated with the Cherry Blossom Festival, that I had no idea was happening.  So pretty!  Couch + pizza + wine + An Education + good conversation with a good friend = a pretty great laid-back Saturday night.

Happy Easter!  Sunday we took part in one of my favorite Easter traditions of late...EATING.  Also respectably known as Easter brunch.  We headed over to Georgetown for a tasty brunch at Clyde's and did a little shopping and a little partaking of frozen yogurt in a lovely park before heading over to the massive parking lot at 10th & H to drop off one NYCer for her bus back home.  Even though I'd rather she stay awhile.

Smithsonianity...Smithsonian insanity?

I'm going to visit every one of the Smithsonian museums. I have no reason not to! They're FREE! Now, I've been to several of them multiple times, but there are others that are probably only going to get one visit, and I haven't even attempted those yet, mostly because they happen to be more than a mile from my apartment.

These guys can get checked off the list:

1. National Museum of Natural History! Multiple visits to this one, and I'm sure there will be more - it's a crowd-pleaser. Science rocks!
2. National Museum of the American Indian! I hope eating in the cafe counts, because I've done that three times. I did check out the canoe exhibit at the entrance of the museum...that definitely counts.
3. National Portrait Gallery! I love their collection of Presidential portraits and the special exhibits that rotate through. Oh, and it's two blocks from my apartment, so ease of access is a big thumbs up.
4. Smithsonian American Art Museum! It shares building space with the National Portrait Gallery, and the courtyard the two share is one of my favorite D.C. places.
5. National Zoological Park! Although I did miss the pandas because of the line...so I'll probably go back.
6. National Air and Space Museum! Another one with multiple visits, and I'm just fascinated by this place - I could spend hours and hours exploring every single exhibit.
7. National Museum of American History! Hello, Julia Child's kitchen AND Stephen Colbert's portrait? You can't keep me away from this one.

And as of today we can mark off two more:

1. Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden!
2. Arthur M. Sackler Gallery!

We'll start where I started today - with the outdoor sculpture garden at the Hirshhorn, which is set below street level on the National Mall and is really a very peaceful outdoor space until you encounter the "sound installation" lurking in one of the corners...but other than that, some really cool pieces by Giacometti and Rodin mixed in with the more modern stuff that tends to be shiny and/or just plain odd. One thing I found pretty interesting was a wish tree installation at the front of the garden where visitors can write wishes on paper tags and hang them from a tree - there were so many different languages hanging from that tree on little tags, which helped me appreciate just how many people roll through our nation's capital.

After making my way around the sculpture garden, I headed across the street to the museum itself, which is somewhat affectionately known as "the doughnut" given its architecture - circular with a giant hole in the middle, which actually helps with working your way through the exhibits in a fairly efficient manner. The Hirshhorn showcases modern and contemporary art, and while I've had houseguests experience its offerings, I hadn't made it over there yet myself. Ummm...I think once might be enough for this one. I do appreciate the modern/contemporary take on things and respect artists' visions and acknowledge all of the work that goes into these pieces, but...


Yes, that face pretty much sums it up. I'm in the midst of the Strange Bodies: Figurative Works from the Hirshhorn Collection, wondering why there's a large, sad, naked man in one corner, severed limbs in the other, and a humanish Bedazzled Christmas-tree-like creation in the middle. Now, I did gain some knowledge and experience some artistic "oooh!" moments out of this museum visit - did you know Alexander Calder invented the mobile? Or that many of Alberto Giacometti's emaciated, roughened sculptures were inspired by prisoners liberated from concentration camps? I worked my way through all three levels and admired many a sculpture, but I also contemplated wrapping aluminum foil around objects in my home, calling them art, and selling my way into early retirement. Hmmm.

Time to move on to the Sackler Gallery, which is connected to the Freer Gallery - the two together consist of the National Museums of Asian Art, so I think I can safely say I've seen approximately half of that endeavor. One of my favorite pieces here was one of the few contemporary pieces (I know, I just went all "hmmm" on contemporary art, but when you're up against room after room of Southeast Asian ceramics and ornate saddle stirrups, contemporary starts to look pretty cool again) on display - S-Curve by Anish Kapoor, the same sculptor who created Cloud Gate...the giant bean in Chicago's Millennium Park. There's just something about those highly reflective surfaces that draws me in and compels many, many clicks of the camera button.

I did learn about the tale of Shuten Doji, the story of the conquest of the monster Shuten Doji by the hero Minamoto as told through screens, scrolls, and fans...and did you know that there is Japanese calligraphy? Check out my sneakily-taken picture from the "don't take pictures in here!" Shuten Doji exhibit (no flash, so no damage caused to ridiculously old Japanese scroll - I feel no guilt for breaking this particular rule). Major props to Minamoto for conquering the red-headed beast. There, culture!

I think I might need to take advantage of some of the docent tours to better experience several of these places. I'm quite capable of amusing myself and learning fun facts in the Air & Space Museum, but I might need a little more help in analyzing Asian pottery.

And still to come:

1. Anacostia Community Museum. This might be exciting, but the name definitely doesn't get me all thrilled about it. I promise I'll give it its due, though.
2. Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum - this one is actually in New York, which presents a small problem of geography. I'm going to make it there, though.
3. Freer Gallery of Art
4. National Postal Museum. Yes, there's a museum dedicated to the USPS. It does kinda fascinate me that mail actually gets from one place to another, so maybe this will provide some enlightening moments.
5. Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center - it's out by Dulles airport, which is a small drawback, but...they have a space shuttle!!
6. National Museum of African Art
7. Smithsonian Institution Building - the Castle! This actually serves as the information center for all of the Smithsonian museums, so I might save it for last just to do the whole thing completely backwards.

Honestly, if I was going to go all gangbusters on this one, I could theoretically visit ALL of them in ONE DAY. That just seems a little ridiculous, though, so I'm going to set myself a deadline of December 31, 2010, which should be completely manageable. Phew.

Jazz in the Garden

Friday night I found myself at Jazz in the Garden at the National Gallery of Art Sculpture Garden. Now, I'm not usually a jazz kind of gal. You might even call me a bit of a jazz neophyte. Being my anal, structured self, I typically prefer something a little more orderly...something where you can really keep the beat, follow what's going on, tap your feet to a rhythm.

You know what? I really wouldn't care what kind of music they showcase at Jazz in the Garden - it could be Showtunes in the Garden or Solid Gold Oldies in the Garden or Throwback Jamz in the Garden - this is just a good time to be had by all. I couldn't even tell you who was playing last Friday without looking at the schedule, which is conveniently available online here. Basically, the premise is...grab some friends, a blanket, a picnic, and spend an hour or two or three or more hanging out the sculpture garden, listening to some good music, enjoying a pleasant summer evening of live music and ridiculously strong pitchers of sangria.

It was so crowded by the time I made my way there! Fortunately, I was meeting an exceptionally tall person who's quite good at providing directions in a crowded space with certain landmarks. This exceptionally tall person happens to be Carolyn's boyfriend, Justin, who was in town for the weekend visiting a friend, so I met up with them and spent some good time catching up and enjoying a D.C. summer evening. I don't think I would ever get tired of Jazz in the Garden.

The Vaughns do D.C.

I know these two would visit even if I lived in a far more boring locale...say, Bismarck, North Dakota...which may be a fascinating place for all I know...but I daresay our nation's capital holds a little more intrigue on the travel front. I just think it's much more interesting for two of your dearest friends to come into town for the weekend and do cool things like tour the Capitol, visit six Smithsonian museums, and explore the Lincoln Memorial than trek around the North Dakota Heritage Center. Although if you're looking for something a little more low-key, maybe Bismarck is the way to go. I digress. Diana and Trinity came to town for the weekend!!

After making the trek into town from Dulles late Thursday night and catching up a little bit, we woke up on Friday morning with a list to tackle. Yes, a list. A list of activities. This is only one of the many reasons why I love Diana so dearly. First on the list - we headed off to the Capitol for a tour, which involved standing in a line, standing in a line, and standing in one more line before we made our way into a theater for a short film about the history of the Capitol that actually did give me some small "I love America!!" goosebumps. We then headed out in our group of twenty or so for our guided tour. It was really interesting to hear the history of the artwork in the rotunda and learn about the "whisper spot" in the former House chamber (supposedly John Quincy Adams had a strategically placed desk where he could hear, quite clearly, what the opposition was whispering on the other side of the room...something about the arch in the ceiling and acoustics and who knows what). The visitors' center is gorgeous, by the way, which is a nice feature considering how much the darn thing cost.

After soaking up some of our nation's history and checking out a pretty impressive building, we were starving, so we headed over to my default dining spot on the National Mall, the café at the Museum of the American Indian. I tried something new this time (of course), a chipotle chicken taco on fry bread (oh yum!) while Diana and Trinity both opted for the pulled buffalo sandwich. Once we refueled our tummies, we headed out for Museum Extravaganza 2009. First stop - Air and Space Museum, where Trinity and I decided to embark on the Cosmic Coaster, described as a "white-knuckled" adventure through the solar system. Diana, fearing for the lunch resting in her tummy, decided to explore a little bit of the museum while we embarked on this amazing adventure. Ummm...her lunch would have been quite fine, because this adventure was far from white-knuckled. However, the two tiny children seated in front of us had the absolute time of their lives, which did put a smile on our faces. How we managed to pick the one ride out of four that doesn't spin you upside down, I'm not sure.

After checking out the Wright flyer and giant missiles and Skylab and a few other aviation wonders, we made a stop in the gift shop to pick up some freeze dried ice cream (astronaut food!!), in part because we needed a treat to make up for the flight simulator disappointment. It was...chalky...yet...strangely ice cream-like once it hit the tongue. Interesting.

On to natural history! We were attacked by dinosaurs, mesmerized by the Hope Diamond, and fascinated by the butterfly exhibit where you can walk through a greenhouse-type thing with about sixty kinds of butterflies. We went a little snap happy in here. Feel the flutter! Oh, and is it every little boy's instinct to attempt to catch the butterflies, thereby killing them? I can't tell you how many moms had to keep exclaiming "don't try to catch them!!" Silly little boys.

And next stop...American history! The American flag that inspired the Star-Spangled Banner, Julia Child's kitchen, and bits & pieces of pop culture all over the place. Per Trinity's request, we then embarked on a comic book mission (I know, I know...but you can see for yourself just how much the comic books mean to him when you see his despair when denied his regular comic book binge) and found ourselves at Big Monkey Comics. That expedition was a little bit of a bust, but we drowned our sorrows (well...Trinity's sorrows...Diana and I could care less) in some fine German beer and ridiculously tasty pizza at Pizza Paradiso in Dupont Circle. Absolutely exhausted after walking around all day (even though it wasn't seventeen miles, as some....ahh hmm, maybe one...pointed out at the end of the day), we retired back to my place with a deck of cards and some Blue Moon on the roof. I love rooftop time with friends - one of my favorite things about city life.

Saturday we set out to tackle the memorials and monuments, with stops at the White House (front AND back, of course - we needed to find a good photo angle for the potential Vaughn Christmas card), Washington Monument, World War II Memorial, Lincoln Memorial, and the Vietnam Veterans Memorial. There's a lot of walking there, folks, so we opted for a quick ride on the Circulator to take us back down the National Mall to the National Archives. There is always ALWAYS a line to get in, so we waited it out with some real (not astronaut) ice cream while the sun blazed down on us. After checking out some extremely old and important documents...Magna Carta, Declaration of Independence, Constitution, Bill of Rights, you know, semi-important stuff...along with some cool stuff in the Public Vault (the original Texas constitution!) and the BIG exhibit (Taft's bathtub! Shaq's shoe!), we continued on Museum Extravaganza 2009 with a visit to the National Portrait Gallery and Smithsonian Museum of American Art. I'd already seen a good chunk of this one, so we divided and conquered, enjoying everything from crazy modern art to the presidential portraits to some quiet time in the courtyard. I love this courtyard, by the way - it's such a great space in the middle of the city to just sit and...well, sit. Thai food for dinner, and so went another great day in the city.

Sunday we continued on Museum Extravaganza 2009 with a sobering exploration of the Holocaust Memorial Museum, which was high on Diana's list of to-dos. Before embarking on our serious afternoon, though, we spent some quality time perusing the offerings at both Borders (where I happened to buy four books and haul them around the rest of the day - this is how much I love books) and H&M (so cheap! so adorable!). Having fairly recently visited the concentration camp at Dachau, we were pretty well-versed in the horrors that took place before and during World War II, but the Holocaust museum is certainly worth a visit. Definitely a little crowded (weekend!), but watching a short film on Hitler's rise to power, walking through the moving exhibits, and hearing the stories of survivors made up for the early crowds as we worked our way through three levels of history. If you have the time, make a stop here - well worth it.

After just a little more ice cream (the street vendors suck you in with their amazing array of frozen options!!), we made our way home, loaded up in the car, and headed out to Dulles to drop off Trinity at the airport. Diana was headed to work in NYC for the next week, so we had time for a girl dinner at Jaleo...and maybe some sangria...and maybe a little extra sangria from the friendly, native Texan bartender...before heading over to Union Station so she could catch her train.

I had a fantastic weekend with these two. I can almost forget how much I miss these people until they show up for the weekend and remind me how wonderful they are. Check out my full collection of pictures from the weekend here. For the full photographic adventure, I'm sure the Vaughns won't be too far behind with their pictures here. Three cheers for good times with dear friends!

Sarin reunion!

What do you get when an awesome person named Sarah and a crazy person named Erin become indistinguishable from one another because they've spent excessive amounts of time at work together, particularly working on one rather trying client? You get...Sarin! Oh, PwC, what have you done to us? Anyway, my dear friend Sarah was in town this last weekend to hang out in D.C. with me, and we had a fantastic time. The recap follows.

After some ridiculous flight cancellations and delays due to crazy, crazy weather going on in Dallas, I rescued Sarah from Dulles during the wee hours of Friday morning - finally here! I had to head in to work for a few hours on Friday morning, which gave Sarah the chance to find one of the city's eight million Starbucks and do a little museum exploring while I did exciting things like edit articles and fight with technology.

After escaping from work (yay!), I met up with Sarah and we had a tasty bento box lunch at Teaism and then thoroughly explored the National Gallery of Art (after passing on the ridiculous line at the National Archives - I don't know what was going on there! probably just a summer Saturday...). As is the problem with many of the great museums in D.C., it's just freakin' large and has SO many cool things in it that you have to just give up at a certain point and go get frozen yogurt from TangySweet (where the line bordered on Archives crazy - we waited it out, though, because we really needed a cool treat). I thought one of the coolest things about the museum was the transition from one wing to the other - a 200-foot long tunnel, complete with moving walkway, through a display of 41,000 LED lights. Snazzy. Really awesome pizza (totally worth the wait!) and a good bottle of wine at 2Amys for dinner, and then we crashed after spending a little quality time with Harry and Sally...oh, and Harry the cat, of course.

Saturday morning I took advantage of actually having another person in my home to cook for more than one, so...French toast, please! After lazing around in the morning with our cups of coffee and catching up, we headed out to Georgetown and had burgers at Peacock Cafe, did some shopping at H&M, wandered through the adorable neighborhood, and ate a dinner's worth of amazing coffee-Oreo ice cream at Thomas Sweet. Of course, waffle cones of homemade ice cream aren't exactly the best choice for dinner (although a perfectly delicious one), so we decided the perfect solution to that would be margaritas, chips, salsa, and queso at Tortilla Coast. Ummm...not exactly healthy, but it is just darn tasty. See how our degree of happiness jumps up with queso and margaritas?

Dana came and met us for the chip & margarita fest, and then we walked over to Artomatic. Yes, the same Artomatic I went to a couple of weeks ago, but last time I didn't make through nearly all of the exhibits, and they certainly didn't have....fire dancers!!. Artomatic is just fun - we actually made it through every floor, and the three of us had a great time exploring the massive art space with adult beverages and cameras in hand. A few of the highlights: Dana gets ridiculously excited by both Peeps and Waffle House, Sarah and I are both inspired to become awesome photographers (she has a good start on that journey with her amazing camera...I have a little camera envy...I mean, excellent close-up shots of the Peeps action), I have a thing for cream soda Dum-Dums, and the creativity some people have just blows me away.

Sunday we made our way out to Eastern Market for a stop at the lunch counter (crabcake sandwiches! fries! massive Diet Cokes! oh yum!) and a quick viewing round of the assorted pickle people and jewelry makers, then we hopped back on the Metro to head downton for a lazy afternoon at the movies in the form of "Away We Go" at the E Street Cinema. Go check out the movie if for no other reason than John Krasinski is just adorable.

So good to spend time with a good friend! Although...it makes me miss all of you good friends that much more. Get ready for me, though, you Dallas-ites - I'll be in town July 8-12! Many things already on tap for the weekend - weddings, dinners, haircuts - so I'm hoping to spend a lot of quality time with the gang...aka my peeps. And yes, I'm going for cheesy with that by following it up with a picture of the giant Peep. Come on, did you expect anything less from me?

The usual...art, history, etc.

Last Saturday I wanted to take full advantage of Museum Walk Weekend, an annual event where ten museums in the Dupont Kalorama Museums Consortium feature free admission (yes, some places actually charge admission here, which is much needed to keep them operational, but it makes you appreciate the Smithosonian that much more...I'm a faithful contributor, though!) and all kinds of crazy special stuff going on. This year it also happened to fall on the same weekend as the annual Duke Ellington Jazz Festival, so a couple of the museums had some extra events planned in conjunction with the jazz festival. Rather than completely exhausting myself and attempting to hit all ten museums (I love this stuff, but not at the expense of my sanity), I went to my #1 choice first, spent the most time there, and then hit up two more that were relatively close by and not at the bottom of the "possibly interesting" list.

#1 choice? The Phillips Collection! I've actually been wanting to check this one out for a while, and while I was concerned that it might be a little bonkers given that it was a summer weekend coupled with free admission...it really wasn't too bad. Maybe a few too many young hooligans running around, but I've accepted that as an inevitable fact of life, especially when I live in the land of tourists. This museum has pretty much my ideal mix of art housed and displayed in a really great way - modern and Impressionist art in an old mansion coupled with bright, open spaces. They have a number of pieces from Rothko, O'Keeffe, Hopper, Klee, Matisse, Picasso, van Gogh, Degas, and Cézanne, and I loved how the museum is organized - rather than grouping it by artist (with the exception of the Rothko Room, which I think is better experienced on a weekday afternoon when absolutely no one else is around) or genre or time period, the art is organized in "conversational groups" (sorry if I'm getting a little artsy on you here, but I think it's interesting), encouraging you to look for similarities and differences in the paintings and/or sculptures in the different rooms. It's definitely a different way to look at the art, which I appreciated.

The museum space is a combination of the Phillips house (a Georgian Revival home dating to 1897), a former apartment building next door to the Phillips house, a modernist wing, a courtyard, and other amazing gallery spaces. I really enjoyed taking in not only the art, but also the details of this remarkable old home. One of the fireplaces had marble tiles, each one intricately detailed with its own fleur-de-lis, and they actually encourage you to take a seat on the furniture in the home and admire the art...as opposed to roping it off and yelling at you when you come within five feet.

In connection with the jazz festival, I listened to a great pianist in one of the larger rooms in the Phillips house along with some interpretive fiddling/violin/impressive-foot-pedal-action that was the musician's interpretation of the art in one of the larger modern gallery spaces. Also in connection with the jazz festival...an "instrument petting zoo" where kids (or anyone, really, but you can bet I wasn't going anywhere near the germ collection known as the reed instruments) could try out all kinds of different instruments. Allow me to describe this for you. Ummm...loud. Yup, that pretty much sums it up. Although one of the little guys was actually getting pretty good with that snare drum.

I absolutely loved the Phillips Collection, and I will definitely be going back for their extended hours on Thursdays and Sunday concerts starting back up in October. Isn't this city great?

From the Phillips Collection I made my way over to the Woodrow Wilson House, which happens to be Washington's only presidential museum. Wilson lived here after his presidency, and it houses quite a few historical artifacts and gifts he received from diplomatic leaders. Did you know that diplomatic relations with Ethiopia were established during the Wilson administration? Neither did I, but I became acutely aware of it when I encountered native dances and all kinds of coffee in Woodrow's pretty nice gardens. I think I'll call him Woody from here on it - Woodrow just sounds so stiff and formal. Anyway, I think I would get more out of the home by actually taking a tour, but it was interesting to walk through the home and check out some of the items on display (they had a movie room!), and I always find it fascinating when these homes smack in the middle of the city, have expansive lawns and gardens. So pretty! And outdoorsy!

After Woody's house, I was up for...the Textile Museum! That's right, textiles. Have their own museum. Right here in our nation's capital. It's conveniently located about two houses down from Woody, so I figured a fairly quick stop would be worth the short trip. I didn't spend too much time there, but I did invest in a little quality time with the Amish quilts and turbans and ceremonial robes from all around the world. Oh, and you know how I mentioned special events were going on this weekend in conjunction with the whole "free admission" bit? Apparently that includes sheep shearing demonstrations at the Textile Museum. That's right, back on the huge lawn behind the museum they had a couple of sheep. I definitely was not expecting to see any sheep on my museum adventures, but I patted them on the head and went on my merry way.

Having not quite tapped out my art limit for the day, I decided that my merry way should take me over to Artomatic, a massive collection of local artists' pieces spread over nine stories in a warehouse, complete with music stages, dance troupes, and all kinds of other crazy artsy stuff. It's basically intended as a gallery space for all of these local artists over a month-long spread, and if I had some extra cash to throw around and some more space on my walls, I might be tempted to pick up some really great photography shots to liven up the apartment. Right besdie all the art I might actually want to purchase...resides all kinds of crazy stuff. A display of art made out of Peeps (yes, those marshmallow guys that pop up around Easter - my personal favorite was "Top Peep" where they were displayed in a kitchen setting ala "Top Chef"), life-sized Obama family finger puppets, miniature drag queen Presidential busts, and plenty of other crazy stuff. There was so much I didn't even get to, so odds are I might make a return trip before it closes on July 5. Not necessarily to buy anything, but I could take in a concert while wandering an industrial space filled with crazy art - pretty cool in my book.

After all of this art and history business (which gave rise to a totally-Picasa-worthy kind of day...I'll let you know when the pics are all up, you know I needed some serious food. Another DC Tex-Mex attempt at Tortilla Coast...and it was ok. Not stellar, but not terrible. At least the chips and salsa were tasty! Such an important benchmark. Rio Grande is still winning in this Texan's opinion. And even though I'm sure I had plenty to eat, it didn't stop me from picking up a toasted marshmallow shake at Good Stuff Eatery, snapping a sneaky picture of Spike (of Top Chef fame, which isn't really that famous, but is kinda food-famous in my world), and walking as far as Union Station before giving out and taking the Metro two stops home. Oh, and I'm quite partial to seeing the Capitol from the back...much fewer people, and it's pretty peaceful to sit on one of the benches with a milkshake and take in the sunset. Not a bad way to end the day.