Ummagumma

Here I am admiring Renoir's  The Luncheon of the Boating Party , worth going to DC all by itself.   Note: This is the third travelogue post on our recent vacation to Washington, DC. Jennifer usually researches everything for our trips before we go. She did all the research for Alaska , all the research for Boston . For DC her efforts were minimal beyond figuring out accommodation and transportation. For the most part, we walked, which simplified a lot of things. We figured we each walked a minimum of two miles a day. On the day of Jefferson Memorial sojourn, I hiked a bit over six miles. Our primary aim was to see and experience The National Mall. We accomplished that in spades. One item she researched screamed for our attendance away from the Mall, however. She asked me if I wanted to do a half-day jaunt to see one of our favorite paintings of all time. How could I say no? Pierre-Auguste Renoir as my all-time favorite painter. The Luncheon of the Boating Party ...

The original Smithsonian Institution building known as "the Castle" as viewed from the National Mall. Note: This is the second of three planned posts on our recent vacation to Washington DC. We marked the east-west extremes of the National Mall in my last travelogue post. Between the Capitol and the Lincoln Memorial lies a magnificent public space roughly divided by the Washington Monument. (Actually the monument is about a half-mile closer to the memorial than to the Capitol.) Beyond the monument the Mall is dominated by the giant reflecting pool. Between the monument and the Capitol stands several major galleries and museums of the Smithsonian Institution. It was there that Jennifer and I spent much of our time on our recent venture to DC. The magnificent Interior of the National Gallery of Art Rotunda featuring a fountain adorned by the Roman god Mercury. Jennifer took these interior pics which I greatly reduced to appropriate blog size.     ...

The Capitol building marks the east side of the National Mall.  American flags fly only when Congress is in session, a relic of pre-electronic times when they served as signals for members of Congress to assemble.   Note: This is the first part of a planned three-part travelogue on our recent vacation in Washington DC. Jennifer and I recently celebrated 25 years of wedded bliss in part with a trip to Washington, DC . Originally, we had planned to visit Chicago this summer but when our daughter won a major art contest we received free tickets to our nation’s capital. But the award conflicted with my daughter's summer schedule so her parents decided to use the tickets for their summer getaway. I am not sure my daughter could have handled the pace and intensity of our tourist onslaught on DC. In the course of four days Jennifer and I visited about 13 museums, a plethora of statues, monuments, and memorials, visited DC's Chinatown, and toured a fashionable a...