Washington DC, May 2016

May took me to Washington DC and some nearby Virginia suburbs for a quick visit to see Sister Virginia and other friends and family.

No visit to DC is complete without going to some of the Smithsonian Museums.  The Smithsonian, founded in 1846, is the world's largest museum, education and research complex.  Admission to its museums is free. Most of its 19 museums are in Washington DC. 

The Renwick Gallery, a branch of the larger Smithsonian American Art Museum, exhibits American contemporary craft and decorative arts from the 19th to 21st centuries. The Renwick has the distinction of being the first building in the United States to be built as an art gallery. It is directly across from the White House.

I've not been to the Renwick before and wanted to see the current exhibit, WONDER, which celebrates the reopening of the Renwick after a two-year renovation. Several leading American contemporary artists were invited to create works specifically for this exhibit. 

Virginia, Kathy, and I stand among artist Janet Echelon's looming spires that she created by stacking index cards.

Virginia was intrigued to be able to walk into the monumental structures by Patrick Dougherty that the artist created on site from tree samplings.

One of my favorite works is by Janet Echelman who created volumetric forms of hand-woven net that hang across the entire 100-foot Grand Salon.  She used colored lighting that constantly changes the mood and colors of this piece.  Many visitors lie down on the floor to take in the light show that this work becomes. 

Of course, no American crafts museum is complete without at least one piece by glass artist Dale Chihuly.  This Seafoam and Amber-Tipped Chandelier is part of the Renwick's permanent collection. 

For lunch with friends John and Kathy, we went to the nearby Exchange Saloon which boasts being DC's Oldest Sports Saloon. It's proximity to the White House, as well as many museums, makes it a popular spot with locals, visitors, and sports fans.

The only other Smithsonian museum we had time for was the Freer/Sackler, the Smithsonian's Asian Art Museum. 

We went specifically for the Turquoise Mountain: Artists Transforming Afghanistan, a small exhibit that chronicles how a British organization, Turquoise Mountain, has transformed the destroyed Murad Khani district of Old Kabul from slums to a vibrant cultural and economic center. Turquoise Mountain enabled Afghan artists and artisans to restore old Kabul. 

The Turquoise Mountain exhibit will be at the Sackler Gallery through the end of January 2017.

For lunch after the Turquoise Mountain exhibit, we went to the USDA Cafeteria, which is open to the public on weekdays. This is the place for in-the-know tourists wanting an inexpensive healthy breakfast or lunch. The menu choices change weekly and on each day of the week. There is a Hot Bar, an Asian Bar, a Barbecue Bar, and a Soup Bar, as well plenty of sandwich, salad, and dessert options.  

You do have to go through a quick security check to get in, but, it is worth it for a tasty meal for well under $10 a person.  I think the 6 of us in our group ate very well for closer to $5 a person.

As might be expected at the USDA, the cafeteria is decorated with vintage nutrition posters that seem to be as true today as this one was in 1918.  

Each year, on the first two Saturdays in May, the European Union hosts a free open house at all the Embassies in the Union.  

Despite long lines to get into the Embassies, we braved it.  At each Embassy there are cultural exhibits as well as food and drink tastings. It was fun and interesting. Here is the line outside the Portugal Embassy. 

Of course, given the current uncertainty about what countries will remain in the European Union, it is possible that we may have attended the last such open house.

I'm a fan of the Le Pain Quotidian restaurants that are all over the world.  There are several in Washington DC and we had lunch at the one  around the corner from the Portugal embassy.  My meal was the daily Baker's Lunch.  This day it was Avocado Toast, Gazpacho, and a Chickpea Salad. Virginia had Quiche and Salad. 

Some of our other memorable meals were 

a Lobster Roll lunch at Ford's Fish Shack.

and,

celebrating Virginia's birthday at  Coastal Flats.

On Saturday morning, we went to her local Farmer's Market where I was intrigued that most vendors were featuring Wild Ramps, a sort of onion that, to my knowledge, only grows on the East Coast.

And, the final highlight of my visit was meeting her almost-one-year-old grand daughter, Italia.

A SECOND DAY IN WASHINGTON DC

Virginia and I spent another whole day in Washington D.C. during my recent visit.

On this day, we took the Metro to Metro Center for our first stop: The New York Avenue Sculpture Project. As a member of the National Museum of Women in the Arts, which is responsible for this project, I have been following the progress of this outdoor sculpture project which they are creating. The first phase of the project is four enormous sculptures by French-born artist Niki de Saint Phalle.




The sculptures have been placed on the median on the block of New York Avenue (between 12th abd 13th Streets) right outside the Museum. Three more phases of the New York Avenue Sculpture Project, all featuring works by women artists, are planned so that outdoor art will line New York Avenue all the way to 9th Street.

We had a lot of fun viewing and walking around the fanciful Niki de Saint Phalle works.



Then we went into the Museum to view works by some of our some of our favorite artists which include

Frida Kahlo




and Camille Claudel.



It is believed, Camille, who was Rodin's mistress as well as student, did much of Rodin's work with no credit.

We stayed for lunch in their restaurant. This photo is from the museum's restaurant and shows the museum reflected in the building across the street.



From here we walked back toward the Mall to the Smithsonian's National Portrait Gallery where I wanted to see the "Echoes of Elvis" exhibit.



There are several Elvis exhibits at various D.C. museums to celebrate that Elvis would have turned 75 years old this year.

The National Portrait Gallery shares a building with the National American Art Museum. As is the case with all Smithsonian museums, I often come in to view a specific exhibit but always find other exhibits that catch my attention. After wandering through the Portrait Gallery, we took what we thought would be a quick peek at the American Art, and wound up spending the rest of the afternoon there.

The "Remembering The Running Fence" exhibit brought back memories of when Christo and Jeanne-Claude ran their fabric fence through 24 1/2 miles of Sonoma and Marin Counties, working on it from 1972 to 1976.

We admired the beauty of the American Art's Great Hall





and enjoyed other works of art as well.







It seemed that throughout my visit to D.C. and Virginia, I was running into fellow Californians and things California. My biggest California surprise was on our way to the Portrait Gallery when we discovered the Cowgirl Creamery in the Penn Quarter neighborhood.



Cowgirl Creamery began in Point Reyes Station, California (west Marin County) in 1997 when owners Sue Conley and Peggy Smith started making hand-crafted cheese. From their beginning I've been a fan of their cheese and often take out of towners to their Point Reyes Station location to sample cheese, have a sandwich, and watch cheese being made. At the Ferry Plaza Marketplace in San Francisco, they have a second cheese shop. So, we made a stop at the D.C. shop, a delightful place with lots of cheese and other fancy food items. As is the case at all Cowgirl Creamery shops, you can sample many of the cheeses. While I was surprised to find the shop in D.C., I was enlightened that Sue Conley is originally from the D.C. area and much of her family is still in Washington and Maryland. And, Peggy Smith was raised in Northern Virginia. So both owners have reason to keep their roots in the D.C. area.

A FEW DAYS IN WASHINGTON DC

I am just back from a week and a half in Washington D.C. and Virginia. My sister Virginia, who lives in Virginia, and I spent two whole days in Washington D.C. where the weather mimicked the cold, rainy days that I left behind in Northern California. None the less, as "tourists" we were out and about and busy.

Whenever I am in D.C. I spend time at the Smithsonian museums. And, each time I visit, I am in awe of what a vast cultural and historical resource the Smithsonian is and that admission to its museums is FREE!

We started one day on the National Mall at the Smithsonian Metro station.

Before heading to Smithsonian museums, we walked to the relatively new World War II Memorial, which is part of the National Park System.




The Memorial officially opened in 2004 but this was the first time we have visited it. Strategically located between the Washington Monument and the Lincoln Memorial, it has been sunk down sufficiently as to block neither of those Memorials while providing views of both of them.





I was intrigued by the bas-relief plaques on either side of the Memorial's entry paths; they depict scenes of America at War.




The Freedom Wall consists of 4,000 gold stars commemorating the more than 400,000 Americans who died in World War II.



I observed many older people visiting the Memorial and overheard them recalling their experiences in the War. It's a very moving experience to make this visit as an American.

Even with heavy rain beginning, we managed to walk through the entire Memorial and to take a short guided tour with a US Park Ranger.



The expanse of the Mall always deceives me, just as walking around Paris always does. This is not a surprise since Pierre L'Enfant, a French artist and engineer who became friends with George Washington while serving in the Revolutionary War, designed both cities. The open space, combined with a lack of high-rise buildings always makes things seem closer than they are...that is, until you start walking from one place to another because it looks nearby and you are still walking half an hour later and still not there.

So, off we went in the rain from the World War II Memorial, past the Washington Monument and eventually arrived at the National Museum of American History.



My main reason to visit this particular museum, other than being hungry for lunch and that it was the closest one to the Washington Monument, was to visit Julia Child's Kitchen and to see the dresses that First Ladies wore to the presidential inaugural balls.




For me, a visit to Julia Child's Kitchen is a pilgrimage of sorts. I was living in Boston when Julia Child started her NPR television series. As a fund raiser for WGBH, the television studio allowed visitors to attend tapings of Julia's shows for a $10 fee. My friend Amy and I, Julia groupies from the start, went to as many tapings as we could. After the show was finished, we got to chat with Julia and husband Paul. Unfortunately, we did not get to taste any food; it was saved for the staff to enjoy.



Julia Child's kitchen at the Museum is the set that was used for her early TV shows. It is a duplicate of her home kitchen which was in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Because many Julia fans like myself come to see Julia's Kitchen, I enjoyed talking with them and reminiscing about this one woman who shaped our culinary habits and interests, as much as I enjoyed looking at the exhibit.




We loved having an up-close look at Michelle Obama's Inaugural Ball dress.




Interestingly, when we got the part of the American History Museum that paid tribute to the Apollo Theatre and black entertainers, we saw that the dresses that the Supremes wore when they performed at the Apollo were of similar fabric to that of Michelle Obama's dress...any connection here?




Just outside of the Apollo Theatre is the Greensboro Lunch Counter, where sit ins by black students took place in the 1960s as part of the Civil Rights movement. It was at this F.W. Woolworth's "whites only" lunch counter, on February 1, 1960, that four African American college students sat down and politely asked for service. When their request was refused, they remained in their seats. After six months of protests, this North Carolina lunch counter was desegregated on July 25, 1960. When the Greensboro Woolworth's closed in 1993, this small section of the lunch counter was donated to the Smithsonian.



While we were at the Lunch Counter exhibit, we were treated to musical entertainment by two Black singers who sang and talked about the struggles of Blacks in America.

We ended our day at the Museum of American History with a visit to Kermit the Frog, who reminded us that it is not easy being Green.