More time in the capitol

Friday was going to be our last full day in D.C so we wanted to get in more museums. We thought the Smithsonian would be a good start! Little did we know that the Smithsonian isn’t one actual museum, it’s a collection of them. After eating at the café in the information castle, which I do not recommend, unless you enjoy getting ripped off ($33 for lunch for 2 that included water, sandwiches and chips, I’m trying to let it go still, leave it up to our government to squeeze you), we went to the Air and Space Museum. I’m not sure it was the constant rain and the two of us being really wet, but we weren’t as excited about the museum as we thought we’d be. It was really cool to the space exhibits, but everything else kind of fell short for us. Terrible I know because it’s really incredible how far we’ve come with flight and aeronautics!
It was still raining so we quickly moved on to our next stop, the National Gallery. I was excited to see what they had! The entrance was grandiose, several large marble columns surrounding a fountain enclosed under a dome ceiling. The first artwork we came across was from the 1600’s mostly catholic paintings. Sean was impressed on how these paintings were so well preserved. Next, Rembrandt’s work! That was exciting to see. His self-portrait was there. Onto impressionism! They had Monet, Degas, Cezanne, Gauguin, and of course, Van Gogh! Those were the really treasures, in my opinion. They even had Van Gogh’s self-portrait. Sean’s first time seeing a Van Gogh in person. He was wondering how much they go for. A whole lot! They have a great selection in their gallery.
The only other exhibit that really caught our attention was a modern art exhibit by Martin Puryear. He used various materials from around the world to create these large abstract works. They were very impressive because of the size, material, and shapes created. One was a giant wheel connected to a basket up side down. That is the best way I can describe it. It took up an entire exhibit room. The woodworking was very wowing, how he intertwined and connected things. No photography, otherwise I would have a picture to show. I asked a guard what the reason was and he said because this was the first stop and het exhibit is going on tour.
After a few hours of taking all the artwork in, we made our way out of DC. The sun had come out and the humidity was back.
That night we met up with Sean’s colleague and wife for dinner. I can’t recall the name of the town or the restaurant, but the pad Thai was good! Conversation ranged from the presidential election to vishlas. I don’t think Sean’s political views were swayed, but I think we found our next dog! And afterwards since we were staying next to a cheesecake factory, we got ourselves a little treat! This time Sean had milk!