The Friday before Christmas, we were both off of work without a single thing to do. This is the first time I can remember this happening in forever. We decided to bum around the city, so we rode our bikes over and got some coffee at Port City by Eastern Market. It’s amazing to sit and drink a cup of joe without any sort of schedule or place to be. Then we rode over to the Air and Space Museum since neither of us had been there in probably the last 20 years, since middle school field trips or possibly earlier. We took the free hour-long tour, where Wayne told us all about the space race, various moon missions, Sputnik, and how rockets work. We also learned that Orville and Wilbur Wright were initially bicycle-makers that evertually got into the whole flying thing. Never knew that. Then we watched Hubble 3D in the IMAX theater. Highly recommend! It was one of those films that brings tears to your eyes in some places just over the sheer accomplishments that humans are capable of achieving. And the imagery is stunning. And you get to wear sweet red 3d glasses.
Afterwards, we went for sushi in Chinatown, walked through the holiday market, and then visted Cowgirl Creamery, where we purchased some delicious pepper-encrusted cheese and salty-crackers.
I seriously love being in the city, especially around the holiday. I don’t know what it is. You can just feel anticipation, excitement, and warmth in everyone walking around.
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November 8th, 2010
Yesterday we went to the Newseum with my parents, our first time to the newly (relatively) opened museum of news. We’d never wanted to fork over the $20 admission fee before, since hey, we’re used to all the freebies DC has to offer. But it turns out they have a buy-one, get-one early bird deal if you buy your tickets between 9 and 11am. So the four of us went for $40 bucks. Not bad.
I will say it was a bit of an emotional rollercoaster going from 9/11 news coverage to Elvis to Hurricane Katrina. But luckily there was a screening room playing only Jon Stewart clips on repeat, so thank goodness for comedic relief.
My dad spotted this great Seinfeld quote in one of the displays: “People who read tabloids deserve to be lied to.” Ha! I will be remembering that next time I’m wanting to pick one up while waiting in the grocery line.
Anyways, if you’ve got a good amount of time to spare and don’t mind the often-heavy subject matters, I’d highly recommend a visit to the Newseum.
Last week, I was lucky enough to go on an after-hours building tour of the Smithsonian American Art and National Portrait Gallery. The building is located at 8th and F St, just west of the Verizon Center. It houses the collections of two separate museums, but together is known as the Donald W. Reynolds Center for American Art and Portraiture. Our group got to hear the details of the renovation of the building, which was closed in 2001 when repairs got underway, and reopened in July 2006. All major mechanical systems were updated and replaced, and the interior courtyard was enclosed, as seen above, with a wavy steel and glass ceiling. At 28,000 square feet of open space, theKogod Courtyard truly is an interesting space to take in. There was initially much debate about the ethics of putting a ceiling on an outdoor space, but I think, as I’m sure many others do, that this is one of the defining parts of experiencing this museum. Every other time I’ve stepped inside, it was during the daytime, but it was quite elegant to see at night with the lights shining on the 864 panes of glass (each one uniquely shaped… thanks computers!) Other interesting tidbits — only the lower 1/3 of this space is climate controlled, so the trees (2 ficus and 12 black olive), which reach into the middle and upper areas, had to be carefully considered for their ability to adapt to the light and temperature.
Busy weekend! On Friday evening we went to Jazz in the Garden at the National Gallery sculpture garden. I rode my bike down there to meet Matt after he got off work, and it’s a good thing we got there early because the spots on the grass filled up super fast. That place gets packed! From our blanket on the north side of the garden, it was impossible to see the band and sometimes harder to hear the music… I guess it was more about being outside on a nice, Friday evening than anything else!
On Saturday morning we went on a quick run from my parents house in HoCo; it’s really weird now to trace my old running path from high school, especially when so much has changed there. It was followed with a delicious brunch/lunch, before we headed off to Baltimore for Mark and Abby’s wedding! A picture of the lovely cake, just for Jill.
And a view of beautiful B-more from where we stayed. Natty-Boh man is wayyy in the background.
Yesterday we drove back home, and despite the intense heat decided to bike our way down to the Corcoran to see the William Eggleston exhibit called Democratic Camera, Photographs and Video, 1961–2008 . It was a pretty interesting and eclectic set of color prints from throughout his career, many of them just mundane detail shots of life in Memphis and the south in the past 50-some years.
Sitting outside on the steps afterwards, Matt ponders the meaning of life. Or, what’s for dinner tonight?
We have stated before that the National Building Museum is one of our favorite places in DC not only for its ever so interesting exhibits and award winning gift shop but for its stunning grand hall. Today the NBM hosted the race packet pickup for the Cherry Blossom 10 Mile Run. This was the first year that they held the pickup at the NBM and it was a pleasant change having to trek over to a hotel in Crystal City (and subsequently getting lost in the underground tunnels). The hall was very busy, and t-shirt hander outers were working at a frenetic pace but I was able to get in and grab my packet (and Lori’s and Mark’s and Annabelle’s) relatively quickly. I came back by about an hour later and there was a line literally wrapping the entire block so I dodged a bullet. Hopefully the organizers will be happy with how the NBM worked to host the event and keep it in DC instead of sending it back over the river.
Just wrapped up our carbo-loading dinner and am ready to go!
It’s a photo from the Feeding Desire Exhibit at Winterthur Estate in Delaware, that’s what. If you thought there wasn’t much to silverware design, influence, or evolution — you are wrong. The utensils in this exhibit range from whimsical to ornate to practical to modern. And sporks!!!
This gorgeous building is directly across the street from Union Station and is home to the National Postal Museum, the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, and (most importantly) the Capitol City Brewing Company. I have only been in one of these (take your best guess) but in looking at the National Postal Museum website it looks like it might have some pretty interesting permanent and temporary exhibits that show how critical the US Postal System was in binding the Nation in its early years. This is definitely the place for philatelists (which sounds dirty but apparently is the proper term for a stamp collector).
The Bureau of Labor Statistics website has lots of oh-so-fun statistics about increased unemployment, rising costs of employment, and increased number of seniors that are working full time…good times. I don’t think I’ll be looking to tour this portion of the building.
A trip to the Capitol Hill Capitol City Brewing company is well worth the visit for more than just the signature brews that they offer. When you come in the entrance you see the door of an old time safe that has been sawed in half. Very impressive stuff, it really makes you appreciate the dedication of turn of the century bank robbers. The rest of the space is pretty phenomenal also as they have maintained much of the original decoration from the early 1900’s building. If coming into DC by train it is a great place to unwind before venturing into the city. Since this is the closest and nicest watering hole to my (relatively) new job site I’ve been stopping in with a bit more frequency than I had in the past. Also, you get a pretty good view of the Capitol building if you are sitting along the window.
I was diggin’ the modern minimalism in Matt’s photo of the East Wing of the National Gallery of Art, and that’s why I posted it today. It was designed by I.M. Pei in the mid 1970’s and conforms to the triangular site at 4th St. and Pennsylvania Ave.
As promised earlier, a picture from Jim Henson’s Fantastic World at the Smithsonian’s International Gallery. (Even though you are not supposed to take photos… here’s some blurry camera-phone for you) If you are a kid you will love this exhibit. If you are a grown-up, you will love this exhibit because it will remind you of being a kid. From Fraggle Rock to my personal favorite King Goshposh and his sidekick Featherstone, there are tons of things on display that will make you smile. The life-size puppets are the best part, and people enjoyed peering into the cases to look at the construction and detailing.
I thought Henson’s simple lines sketches were the most interesting. In many cases, a few pencil strokes was all it took for an idea to be born and described. You could see the personality of his character puppets long before they became 3-dimensional. It was also interesting to learn about all of Henson’s “failures” – ideas that were deemed too ridiculous at the time and never picked up.
And of course there was the always-adorable Kermit, innovative at the time for his soft structure which would allow the puppeteers to create tons of different facial expressions with just small changes in their hands and fingers.
Go go go! to the exhibit – you have to see it for yourself.
