November 10, 2005
D.C.: Part Two
Well, I meant to read some more of The Possessive Investment in Whiteness (which is really making me feel horrible), but I wanted to share about the rest of the trip. So of course, since that's more fun, that's what I'm going to do.
On Friday, we slept in after our raucous night at the quasi-Irish pub and then attended a session of the conference. Afterwards, Erica, Cristen, and I decided to head to the National Mall to take advantage of some of the Smithsonian and see some of the monuments. Can someone please explain why the museums are only open until 5:30? What are we - Europe? I mean, my day is barely getting started at 5:30. So by the time we got out there, we only had a couple hours, which we decided to split between the National Gallery and the Museum of American History.
First of all, the weather in DC would make you jealous. It was beautiful all weekend. I wore a long-sleeved t-shirt and flip-flops and was slighly warm. The sky was perfectly blue and the trees were colorful. Here's what one of the streets near the mall looked like:
Since we didn't have much time in the National Gallery, we used the map to strategically plan which salons we wanted to visit. Unfortunately, we got kind of turned around. You know, I hate not being able to spend as much time as I would like. When I was thining of going to school in DC (before those schools declined my offer of attendance), I had this grand idea of going to the National Gallery once a week and going through it room by room. That way, I wouldn't feel rushed. I could enjoy a leisurely gaze at my favorite works of art. Being there made me sad that this dream didn't work out. I took some photos of the art.
These next three are all little scenes from the same painting. I sometimes wish I could live in a Rococo painting.
Just a few more:
We went to the museum store afterwards, but I was sorely disappointed at the price hike in prints since the last time I was there, so I just got a couple postcards.
We stayed longer than intended, so we didn't end up going to the Museum of American History. We saw some monuments instead, starting with the Washington Monument.
If you look way down at the other end of the mall, you can see the Capitol.
And then, of course, the President's abode. You know, the funny thing about DC is that there were protestors outside of H&M, but none outside of the White House.
If I could appropriate one of the monuments to the founding fathers for my own, I would choose the Jefferson. I don't know why, really. It's just always been one of my favorites. So we decided to walk over to it. Of course, it's quite a ways away. We had to cross this bridge:
And walk around a lake. We didn't end up making it the whole way. It was just so far, but we did take some great pictures, if I do say so myself:
The three of us took advantage of this serene moment to reflect on the meaning of life.
And then we headed toward the Lincoln. I made Cristen and Erica pause at this little bend in the road because it seemed like a perfect scene, with the red trees and scattered leaves. If we were at a college campus, this would be the picture they'd put on their brochure:
It was getting dark, which means my camera wasn't working so great anymore (getting all blurry), so out of the about twenty photos I took of the WWII and Lincoln monuments, I ended up with these two:
Then we rushed back home for dinner. Well, Erica and Cristen went out to dinner. I wasn't feeling up to it, so I chilled and watched TV.
The next day can be summed up pretty quickly (I didn't take too many photos), so I'm just going to tag it on right now. After some conference sessions, five of us hopped onto the metro to Georgetown. I loved Georgetown. I wish I had taken photos of all the details. Another time, I guess. We just wandered the streets until we found the university. Then we went to the bookstore to get some Georgetown attire. I did take a few snapshots of the campus.
After walking a couple miles (seriously), we all met up for a big program dinner and then some of us headed for Dupont Circle where we eventually found a cafe called L'Enfant for coffee, crepes, tea, beer, whatever.
Next morning, I bought some books that I don't know when I will ever read, piled back in the van, and drove on home to Indiana.
Posted by kea at November 10, 2005 06:02 PM