I don’t usually do this, but I want to get this on the record soon and my work schedule will not allow a leisurely description of my (most recent) three days in Washington. So we’re going to take the trip through my pictures. Hope you enjoy!
We arrived midday midweek—picked up our friends at the train and had a quick lunch at Le Pain Quotidien in Union Station. From there we walked down to the Library of Congress. They have a Herblock Gallery and the present exhibit, “Herblock Looks at 1968: Fifty Years Ago in Editorial Cartoons,” was on my husband’s list of must-sees. I chose this day for Capitol Hill because Michael Cohen was due to testify the next day and I figured it would be a madhouse. But—as you can see—all was quiet at the Capitol.
The Herblock exhibit was excellent! And it’s only on display for another week so if you’re going, get there!
From there we walked to the Postal Museum. Didn’t know we had one? Well, we do and it is spectacular. Present exhibits include flower stamps, World War I letters from the front, the history of airmail . . . and many more. I spoke with the very youthful gift shop clerk and said, “Do you even understand this stuff?” He laughed because he understood what I was saying. It’s a great place to take children, plenty of hands-on stuff and mail vehicles and mailboxes . . . Show the USPS some love and visit sometime.
Dinner that evening was at El Chalan, which I have already sung the praises of. We spent the night at Adams Inn, a bed-and-breakfast in Adams Morgan, a new section of town for this regular DC visitor. Very comfortable accommodations in a third-floor room, clean, and convenient to restaurants in every ethnic form you can name just a few blocks away on 18th Street.
Our next day—Cold! Windy! But it didn’t have snow or rain so all was good. And, honestly, what else would you expect in March? We started at the National Portrait Gallery. Actually, we tried to start there, but it turns out they don’t open until 11:30 a.m. That was a surprise. So we wandered around the neighborhood, down to Ford’s Theater (but didn’t buy the tour—one of these days I will), and back in time for the gallery opening. I headed straight for the portraits of Barack and Michelle Obama, of course.
Because the Smithsonian museums are free you can just walk out and walk back in again (I love that). So after a little while we headed over to Rosa Mexicano for lunch. This was probably the biggest surprise of our visit. I hadn’t researched this place (we avoid chains as a rule but I didn’t dig that far), just saw that it was Mexican food, which would be popular with all of us, and it was convenient to the gallery, so we went. Really good. Get the guacamole or you will be sorry. Just make sure you have enough people to eat all of it.
After that, it was back to the gallery to look at Civil War era daguerreotypes. A social comment here: I am visually disabled (not just an age thing). I carry a flashlight, which helps. Art galleries often have low light. I understand that art has to be protected. But the contrast between reading descriptions at the Herblock Gallery (where everything was written in a solid font on a white background) and the National Portrait Gallery/Smithsonian American Art Museum (where descriptions were much harder to read) was significant for me. Having an audio tour does not solve the problem—I love the peace that happens when you stand in front of art and having a stranger’s voice in my ears would ruin that.
Enough of a PSA. The galleries were fabulous. And the orchid display in the courtyard was amazing! Cold and windy? Not in there!
We spent our entire day in those galleries. When it came time to move on (our friends had a dinner date with other folks) we just headed back to the inn. Husb and I had no dinner plans—lunch had been quite enough.
The last day—the Newseum, which is closing at the end of the year so you must go! (According to a docent I spoke with, they are looking for a new, smaller location—I hope they find it.) We only had the morning but we made the most of it, starting in the Pulitzer Prize-winning photos exhibit, which was very emotional; the photos are gut-wrenching powerful. From there we moved to the editorial cartoons (following the Herblock theme of a few days before), past where school kids were playing newscaster, and on to a display featuring the Berlin Wall. They actually have part of the Wall on display. And we ended on a more cheerful note, the funny pages!
One of the things I love about DC is its walkability. And when you do walk, you often come across things that surprise you. As we walked back to Union Station from the Newseum, we came across the Japanese American Memorial to Patriotism in World War II on Lousiana Street NW. It names the internment camps and how many people were at each one. Not the finest moment in American history but one we should not forget.
So that’s my whirlwind tour of DC. I have been to the monuments (including the NPS van tour), walked the Mall, pretty much immersed myself in DC touring for years. And yet this visit I did not go anywhere I had been to before (with the exception of the National Portrait Gallery). And I still have places I want to see!
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