Washington, D.C. - Day 2 Photos

Jeff said a lot of our photos yesterday looked like the ones they took last year on their trip.  I'll bet this day was a little different than what they did... seeing that I was with two art-loving girls all day.   We had a list of things we wanted to see at each museum and we moved fast.

We started out at the National Archives.  Wow!  What am impressive place to display the Declaration of Independence, Constitution, and Bill of Rights!  It was like walking into a cathedral -- felt like a holy place.  :-)  I like how they only let a certain number of people in at a time and gave us a few minutes, then moved everyone out to let a new group in.  Didn't get too crowded that day.  We also saw the only copy of the Magna Carta in the US and the Emancipation Proclamation.  LOVED this place!

Here we separated for a little while.  Lauren had seen a researchers entrance at the back and wanted to see if they would let a family historian in.  She didn't have all her info with her or she could have done some really good research.  Hey, Grandpa -- This conference meets again in 2 years.  Wanna meet us there for some research?  And Grandma can go hang out with us and the next museum we went to -- The National Art Gallery - West Wing.  

This museum was like walking through an art history book.  Jordann was really excited about this one.  She had it all planned out.  We walked through EVERY room in chronological order.  We walked into almost every room and said, "I can't believe we're looking at something that _____ painted!" or "I can't believe that this was painted _____ years ago!"

Because we walked through so fast Jo took lots of photos to look at later.  So we can remember everything we saw - da Vinci, Rembrandt, Degas, Renoir, Monet, Manet, Van Gogh, Gaughin (these are just a few of my favorites, the girls' were a little different).  I was impressed by how much Jo knew.  She was explaining the art to me using real artistic terms!  At one point we just had to sit down, in a room filled with 12 Monet paintings, and try to soak in that we were really here.  Here's one of L's faves:

Next stop, the Museum of Natural History.  This place is huge & we were running out of time.  So we kept repeating to ourselves, "Diamond & dinosaurs..." It was very tempting, but we saw the Hope Diamond, walked through the room with dinosaurs, and left.   It's on our list of things to do next time.  Along with the American History Museum which was closed for restoration.

From there we walked by the Department of Agriculture (Lauren REALLY wanted a tour, but we didn't stop.) and went to the Holocaust Museum.  No photos from there, but it was an amazing tour.  I highly recommend it.  Very crowded, though.

Next door was the Bureau of Engraving and Printing.  The tours for the day were all full so we just went in to the visitor's center.  Jordann bought some money.  $150 for only $2.00.  (It was shredded!)  

After that we stopped for a soda break.  Lauren went to the Dept of Ag but their tours ended at 3 -- we were too late.  Next time...  Then we walked back to the American Art Museum/Portrait Gallery.  Here I am pointing the way:

There was ALL kinds of American art here.  I've mentioned several times on our trips over to Oakland that some of these gang members would be pretty good artists.  Well, look at this:

Lauren with one of her heros:

This was an interesting "fountain" in the atrium.  It was only about 1/2" deep so you could walk through it.  Jo took some other good photos here, too.  I may post more later.  She also found the painting of George Washington that she wanted to see, and some of Glenn's relatives, John Adams and John Quincy Adams.

To be continued...