Art, Friends and Flight Home, April 21, 2008

 First order of the day for us was packing.  It was a struggle to fit everything in our bags, but somehow we managed.  Getting the full bags down the narrow spiral staircase proved challenging, but they were all sitting by the front door, ready to go by 8:45 AM, and so were we.  We would be back by 3:00PM to pick them up and meet our taxi to the airport, but meanwhile, we still had a few more DC things to do.

We had decided that Pete’s Diner rated an encore performance for breakfast.  The sweet potato pancakes were definitely worth another taste, but also the diner was located just 2 blocks away from the Supreme Court building and the Library of Congress.  We wanted to at least walk around those two buildings before leaving town---rain or no rain!

After our delicious breakfast at Pete’s, we walked north on 2^nd St for two blocks, before taking a sharp left on Maryland Avenue NE.  2nd St runs along the backside of the Library of Congress and the Supreme Court buildings.  Maryland runs along the east side of the Court.  There were some wonderful brick houses along 2^nd St and we were able to catch a glimpse of the historic Sewall-Belmont House on the corner of 2^nd and Constitution before we headed down Maryland Ave.   The Sewall-Belmont House is one of the oldest homes in the city, built in 1800.  It was also home to the National Women’s Party, organized in 1917 to pressure Congress and the White House for the right to vote.

When Maryland Ave. connected with 1^st St. NE, we found ourselves in front of the Supreme Court.  The court was in session today, and many people were lined up out front under their umbrellas, waiting for a 3-minute viewing of the court in action.  We did not want to stand in line, so we continued on past the Library of Congress and found ourselves back on Independence Ave SE, glad we had taken the time to see these impressive buildings.

From Independence Ave. we boarded a bus that took us right to the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden.  Since it was not quite 10:00 AM, we had a little time to enjoy some of the outdoor sculptures before the museum opened.  Barbara even danced with one!  We took some pictures of the outdoor sculpture garden across the street, but it was raining quite steadily by this time---not really an outdoor sort of day.  At 10:00 AM, the museum opened and we went inside.  Barbara met her friends Steve and Joan, and toured the museum with them and even had time to have a cup of coffee.  (Steve was a friend from Barbara’s Ohio days. He introduced George and Barbara). 

Kris and I put our things in a locker and started our tour of the museum from the top down.  Our paths crossed a few times during the visit and we all ended out down at the gift shop around 12:00 noon.  It was a wonderful morning enjoying the modern art and sculpture---even a few more Nevelsons!

After saying good-bye to Steve and Joan, we walked across the mall to have lunch at the Cascade Café in the National Gallery of Art.  It was like a giant food court with quite an array of choices.  Barbara and I ended out getting a selection of tapas to share, while Kris chose a delicious-looking open-faced sandwich with shrimp.  Barbara had arranged for two of her former high school classmates from India to meet us for lunch.  Both have jobs in Washington DC now.  Lou  Riggs works for the Department of Agriculture and Paul Heusinkveld works for the State Department.  It was fun to meet them and hear the three of them reminisce about their time in India.

However, Kris and I had a “date” with some Matisse Cutouts in the Tower of the East Building, so we excused ourselves about 1:15.  The tower closes at 2:00 PM, and it had been closed when we were in the gallery on Thursday.  We were looking forward to seeing the cutouts.  They were huge!  After that, we worked our way down from the top of the building for a second look at some of the art in the East Building and reconnected with Barbara and her friends in the cafe.  They were still talking, so Kris and I headed for the downstairs gift shop.  Then, we continued on upstairs for a second look at some of the art in the West Building.  It was especially nice to revisit some of our favorites---Monet, Cezanne, Mary Cassatt---works that, up until this point, we had only seen on notecards.  They are incredible in person!

 

We met Barbara near the central courtyard, stopped in at the upstairs gift shop for a few minutes, then Kris asked directions for the quickest way to get to the Sculpture Garden---it was almost 2:30 and we were running out of time. We waved good-bye to the Leonardo on our way out the side entrance---she just glowed in the distance!  I was really glad to have had this little bit of extra time in the National Gallery.

We had originally thought we would take the Metro back up to the Coach House, but when we saw the Sculpture Garden we all said taxi, and bought ourselves a little more time!  We saw some wonderful pieces of sculpture by David Smith, Joan Miro, Claes Oldenburg and others.  We even saw the Thinker on a Rock by Barry Flanagan---it had been on Barbara’s list (it was a rabbit in thinker pose), but she wasn’t sure where to find it.  It was a fun last thing to see in DC---a wonderful day in spite of the rain!

We were not ready to leave, but the clock was ticking.  Barbara and Kris had hoped to fit in a visit to the Botanic Garden after lunch, but time just ran out.  There might have been enough time to get over there after lunch, but not really enough time to enjoy the garden.  Kris hailed a cab on Constitution Ave and we were on our way back to the Coach House before 3:00.

Back at the Coach House we had a little time to rearrange our luggage and take a few more pictures before the cab arrived.  Getting our heavy bags down all those steps to the sidewalk was hard work!  It was still raining.  The cab arrived on time at 3:30 and before we knew it, we were on our way to Reagan National. The cab driver called to say that the cab would be at the coach house in 5 minutes and then a computerized call came from the yellow cab company saying “the cab should be arriving … now” just as it drove up.

Everything went smoothly with checking our bags and getting through security.  Before security we had gone down to the Metro station to see if we could turn in our fare cards for a refund---no such luck.  There was no option for that on the machine, so Kris came up with the idea of giving our partially used cards to a gentleman who was trying to figure out how to purchase one.  He was delighted!

Waiting down by the gate we had a little something to eat---Cheeseburgers and Onion Rings from Fuddrucker’s.  6 [m flight. That should get us to Denver!  We also had 3 very expensive glasses of wine purchased from the bar next door.  We won’t do that again!  One of us also had to do a little last minute souvenir shopping at the airport gift shop.  Shhhhhhhhh!  Though we weren’t there for it all it rained 1.08 inches with a high of 64º and low of 57º.  We got home at 11:15 pm.  George met us and took everyone home.