The Traveling 3some - Day 17 - Washington DC #2

October 21

After a free, shirt tucking, pants lifting buffet breakfast, we were girded for another (and last) day in D.C. The goal now was to go inside many of the sites which we had driven by the day before. 

In this shot the Metro looks better than it has a right to. In fact, the ceilings are an unrelieved gray and one design pattern repeated over and over at every station. For the most part, announcements by the train drivers were not only heavily accented but also speed mumbled. When broadcast through the typically static filled and distorted speakers it was like listening to gibberish from Jupiter. Guys, there are far better subway systems in lesser nations - this is what the heart of a world empire presents to its guests (let alone its own citizens)?

Wow!  Gorgeous day to sightsee. Yesterday's arctic chill became today's breezy, but balmy clime. Even Cricket can peek with curious relief from his mole hole of a carrier.

First stop - U S Capitol. The closer you approach the more truly massive it becomes. This thing is huge.
  

When in a rotunda, look up. Usually this is where a Capitol puts one of its best feet forward and the U.S. Capitol is no exception. 

The rotunda floor. But for the fact that Romans painted their marble statues so that they appeared life like and we do not, this scene could be straight out of the Roman Forum in its heyday.

The Hirshhorn Museum filled with works accumulated by another eclectic collector and, naturally, a rich one. And what's that thing in front that looks like a car with a rock on it? Pam is standing there amazed.

This sculpture is at the entrance of the Hirshhorn Museum. Yes, this is art. For those dismayed by the Jeff Koons colorful Piglet at $8 million plopped down in front of Sacramento's new Golden 1 Center, we coulda had this gem for $9 million. Watch what you wish for.

Ron Mueck's "Untitled (Big Man)"....and he is! Now THIS is eclectic. Yes, his genitalia are exposed if you care to peek.

Joan Miro's "Woman Before an Eclipse with Her Hair Disheveled by the Wind"

A first generation abstract expressionist, Willem de Kooning is one of the most important artists of the 20th century. By this sampling of his work that is readily apparent. Speak among yourselves.

We saw this in the museum store - Cricket was very curious? Yet it's Pam who took the photo. There's a lot going on in this book cover and, dare it be said, much of it of questionable savoriness. A de Kooning it's not.

Cricket saying "Let's cut this artsy-fartsy stuff -- I see a squirrel!".

Entering the "mountain" that is the Martin Luther King Memorial, this statue of King is revealed. The Chinese sculptor's past experience includes sculpting many statues of Mao Zedong. 

Dramatic exterior of the National Museum of the American Indian. 

 

A side shot of the American Indian Museum showing its sinuous lines. It's evocative design with its Southwestern sensibility obviously favors certain tribes of the Indian Nation.

This display of watercraft is in the first floor lobby of the above museum

More Indian Museum.

More, also on the first floor.

Today went inside the Jefferson Memorial. In a couple of days we'll be touring his home, Monticello, to get closer to our third President. Today is Sunday and many tourists seem to have evaporated.This makes tourist-free photos much easier to set up.

Cricket caught red handed desecrating a monument. To protect the innocent, which monument will not be revealed. The humiliation continues.

When they realized that the original sculpture was going to be dwarfed by the size of the building they simply doubled the size of the sculpture in every dimension. So impressive. It almost does want to make you at least genuflect.

The concentration of contents in the National Air and Space Museum is mind boggling. For the kid in all of us.

Food trucks all over the place. we counted 24 in a row at L Enfant Plaza alone, but more often in groups of 10 or less. A tourist army travels on its stomach