A Jaunt to Washington

Yesterday was my last weekday without a job (my new position starts Monday), so to celebrate I drove down to Washington DC! Well, I drove to Bethesda and took the Metro in to the city. It was fantastic! I've been to the Washington Monument and walked around the National Mall, but this was my first time in the heart of downtown. 

I went to the Smithsonian American Art Museum. How incredible is it that the Smithsonians are free?? They just let us all in! I don't know much about art, but I loved being there. They have an exhibition called "Votes for Women" about the struggle of the suffragettes and it was amazing. No progress ever comes without protest. Saw the portrait gallery with all the presidents, and found Michelle Obama's portrait too. Gorgeous :) Also, this painting is called "The Justices" and the amount of women lining up to take pictures with it was huge.

I took a picture of all the art with cats in it, of course.

Modern art has never been my thing... I just don't get it. But there were a couple pieces that I felt I at least got what they were going for-- this is a television map of the US with each state's TVs playing a piece of media that reminded the artist of that state (Wizard of Oz for Kansas, etc).

And this is a piece about the Vietnam War that kept churning out news reports constantly.

There was just So Much Art. I could've spent the whole day there, but I was starving and wanted to get a glimpse of the rest of downtown as well.

Outside it was raining lightly and the air was muggy but the blocks are short and easy to walk around. Found this "walk of fame." (There were a lot of other stars too, haha.)

Also walked by Ford's Theatre, the National Theatre, and the Warner Theatre.  Ate lunch at Shake Shack-- my first time and it was delicious! I'm excited to go to the other Smithsonians! It's amazing to be so close to all these cultural icons that I otherwise would have to plan whole trips around. Hoping to do a New York weekend very soon :) 

The drive back home actually turned out to be an adventure because my GPS took me on these CRAZY back country Maryland roads instead of on the interstate?? Like, I was driving on roads with chickens wandering about.  My phone battery was going to die and I don't know the area at all, obviously, so when I finally saw a sign for the I-95 I followed it and made it home. Thanks for nothing, Siri.