November 10
Sunday, a free day to spend sightseeing, to reacquaint ourselves with where we lived for so many years, and to relearn the subway system . . .
[Our Rosslyn subway stop was just a couple of blocks from our hotel. We wanted to take a trial run, determine that we could get a one-week pass, and be prepared to show Jeanne and Ken “the ropes” when they arrived. Here we’re taking the escalator deep into the bowels of the system . . . ]
[We started on the blue line in Rosslyn, transferred to the red line, and here we’re coming out of the system at the Woodley Park/Zoo metro stop . . . ]
[This is the Omni Shoreham Hotel where our CCL training would begin the following day. We walked about inside this ginormous place to get our bearings. This was about two blocks from the Woodley Park metro stop . . . ]
[Back on the subway . . . ]
[Taking the red line to Gallery Place . . . ]
[And just around the corner from the Gallery Place metro stop is the National Portrait Gallery . . . ]
[At the end of the block is Capital One Arena where the Washington Capitals play hockey, where the Washington Wizards play basketball, and where the Georgetown Hoyas play basketball . . . ]
[Meanwhile, back at the National Portrait Gallery . . . ]
[Straight down 8th street from the gallery front steps, the Calvary Baptist Church is on the right side . . . ]
[Vaquero, by Luis Jiménez . . . ]
[We’re now inside the gallery . . . ]
[The Super begins the tour . . . ]
[Hall and atrium sculpture and art . . . ]
[If you were a senior college student in Alexandria last semester you will recognize Albert Bierstadt’s “Among the Sierra Nevada, California.” I was so amazed a whole “room” had been dedicated to an individual painting that I had to see it . . . ]
[The Super takes over the room . . . ]
[Then I took over the room . . . ]
[It’s impressive, if not just by the presentation alone . . . ]
[Looking out from Bierstadt room . . . ]
[And this is similar to the photo as presented at senior college . . . ]
[Certainly one of the highlights of wandering through the National Portrait Gallery was running across this bust of John C. Bde Maka Ska . . . ]
[Something to do with nation building and cherry trees . . . ]
[Never pass up a selfie op . . . ]
[I never believed in such a thing, but oil paintings don’t lie!]
[A work of art from France . . . ]
[There’s our Bierstadt from further down the hall . . . ]
[The current occupant’s favorite president . . . ]
[And here’s why . . . ]
[Seen previously herein, also famous as a crosser of the Delaware River . . . ]
[And now a brief history through the presidencies . . . ]
[You will note throughout that some of the explanatory notes herein are not exactly “on the level.” That’s because when I squat to take a photo, I can lose plumb . . . ]
[The Super posing with a recent president . . . ]
[I have always been a Baldwin fan, and his likeness is portrayed by slightly different sized “bottle caps” . . . ]
[Betty Friedan, author of the “Feminine Mystique” (a mystique I have never been able to solve) . . . ]
[A room of large landscapes (the sitting model is unknown to me) . . . ]
[The “S” in GODS would flicker on and off. I could never catch it off . . . ]
[Thought this exceedingly cool . . . ]
[“&” . . . ]
[Also exceedingly cool . . . ]
[Girls like horsies . . . ]
[Of interest in our family . . . ]
[Seen his island in Okinawa, seen his sculpture at Indiana University . . . ]
[I remember hearing about Dr. Drew at some level of schooling in Alexandria and was deeply disturbed by it . . . ]
[A recent FLOTUS . . . ]
[Well, Paul Arneson was Mom’s neighbor in Alexandria . . . ]
[Sculptures by Paul Manship . . . ]
[“Bather” by Joseph Renier . . . ]
[The courtyard atrium . . . ]
[There will be further mention of this place at the end of the week . . . ]
[And that evening the Howell’s arrived . . . ]
[We walked up Wilson Boulevard looking for fine dining . . . ]
[This was a relatively new place called “Barley Mac.” We enjoyed!]
Always do right. This will gratify some people and astonish the rest. ~ Mark Twain
Up Next: More D.C.?
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