tortoisegirl (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
tortoisegirl) wrote2010-08-29 11:40 pm
tortoisegirl) wrote2010-08-29 11:40 pm
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Finally, exciting things!
House-sitting at my dad's new place until Wednesday, and it's so quiet and niiiiice here. I was going to spend today walking around the neighborhood to see what around but after a long day yesterday and a long week ahead it was just too nice to laze around all by myself.
And about my long day yesterday! I took the train down to Washington DC for the day, which is something I'd been wanting to do for a while just to see the city and be touristy. And I got to spend most the visit with![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
sandoz_iscariot! We got to do a lot, though I didn't take many pictures and many of the ones I did take didn't turn out well. I'll share what I've got.
Well first of all there was a little timing fail on my part in that there was a Glenn Beck rally going on that day. There were some teabaggers on the train with me, extolling the virtues of Sarah Palin (thankfully not for the whole ride), and sandoz had issues getting to the metro because it was so packed, but we weren't near the Lincoln Memorial rally site and didn't encounter them that much. Based on the t-shirts I saw their rainson d'etre of the day was "honor" - reclaiming or restoring the nation's honor. Which, now that think of it, makes me think of Zuko from A:TLA more than American patriotism. So, lol teabaggers, lol.
Anyway, onto the good parts.
The above building is one the Smithsonian's buildings. We didn't actually go to this particular one (I just thought it was pretty); we went to the Natural History Museum. It was very large and very crowded, but for exhibits we visited the oceans, dinosaurs, mammals, gemstones, and birds.
The mammal exhibit was a hall of stuffed & posed specimens, some on shelves or in cases but many were set up in these displays that mimicked their natural environment and the animals were posed to be interacting with it, like two lions taking down a water buffalo or a coyote trying to get to a beaver hiding in a pile of logs. Sadly I didn't think to take wider shots of the entire displays and just got a few animals. The gemstone were also veeery cool. I only took pics of the jewelry, but there were cases upon cases of every kind of gemstone you could think of, both cut and uncut, and in every color they comes in. It was impressive.
Lunch was some tasty street food, then the sculpture garden was the next stop. It was all modern sculptures, mostly abstract rather than classical sculptures. The metal tree was my favorite :) The center of the garden featured a very wide pool designed for sitting and dipping your feet. The temperature was up there, so a spell of sitting at the water was very welcome. We had a perfect view of the National Archives, where the Constitution is housed.
That's all I've got for photos, but we also went to the Portrait Gallery and a Norman Rockwell exhibit at the Museum of American Art. The Portrait Gallery was more fun than I expected. There were the old-timey presidential portraits that I've seen in history textbooks, but also painting of people I hadn't seen before, like Walt Whitman and the woman who founded the Girl Scouts. The more modern portraits were a mixture of photographs, paintings, and even videos. George Lucas has a very large photograph, and there's a big, colorful painting of LL Cool J that totally charmed me :) And the original design for the iconic Obama CHANGE image, which was very cool to see large and up close.
That was the last big stop for the day, then there was coffee and more walking and after sandoz and I parted ways I found a patch of grass on the Mall to read a bit. And I found my way back to Union Station without getting lost \0/ A fantastic day with fantastic company :)
And about my long day yesterday! I took the train down to Washington DC for the day, which is something I'd been wanting to do for a while just to see the city and be touristy. And I got to spend most the visit with
sandoz_iscariot! We got to do a lot, though I didn't take many pictures and many of the ones I did take didn't turn out well. I'll share what I've got. Well first of all there was a little timing fail on my part in that there was a Glenn Beck rally going on that day. There were some teabaggers on the train with me, extolling the virtues of Sarah Palin (thankfully not for the whole ride), and sandoz had issues getting to the metro because it was so packed, but we weren't near the Lincoln Memorial rally site and didn't encounter them that much. Based on the t-shirts I saw their rainson d'etre of the day was "honor" - reclaiming or restoring the nation's honor. Which, now that think of it, makes me think of Zuko from A:TLA more than American patriotism. So, lol teabaggers, lol.
Anyway, onto the good parts.
The above building is one the Smithsonian's buildings. We didn't actually go to this particular one (I just thought it was pretty); we went to the Natural History Museum. It was very large and very crowded, but for exhibits we visited the oceans, dinosaurs, mammals, gemstones, and birds.
The mammal exhibit was a hall of stuffed & posed specimens, some on shelves or in cases but many were set up in these displays that mimicked their natural environment and the animals were posed to be interacting with it, like two lions taking down a water buffalo or a coyote trying to get to a beaver hiding in a pile of logs. Sadly I didn't think to take wider shots of the entire displays and just got a few animals. The gemstone were also veeery cool. I only took pics of the jewelry, but there were cases upon cases of every kind of gemstone you could think of, both cut and uncut, and in every color they comes in. It was impressive.
Lunch was some tasty street food, then the sculpture garden was the next stop. It was all modern sculptures, mostly abstract rather than classical sculptures. The metal tree was my favorite :) The center of the garden featured a very wide pool designed for sitting and dipping your feet. The temperature was up there, so a spell of sitting at the water was very welcome. We had a perfect view of the National Archives, where the Constitution is housed.
That's all I've got for photos, but we also went to the Portrait Gallery and a Norman Rockwell exhibit at the Museum of American Art. The Portrait Gallery was more fun than I expected. There were the old-timey presidential portraits that I've seen in history textbooks, but also painting of people I hadn't seen before, like Walt Whitman and the woman who founded the Girl Scouts. The more modern portraits were a mixture of photographs, paintings, and even videos. George Lucas has a very large photograph, and there's a big, colorful painting of LL Cool J that totally charmed me :) And the original design for the iconic Obama CHANGE image, which was very cool to see large and up close.
That was the last big stop for the day, then there was coffee and more walking and after sandoz and I parted ways I found a patch of grass on the Mall to read a bit. And I found my way back to Union Station without getting lost \0/ A fantastic day with fantastic company :)