We had a leisurely breakfast with Lolly and then she dropped us off at the metro station in Vienna. When we emerged, we were almost at the doorstep of the Library of Congress.
I loved it.
I got a blurry picture of Cotton Mather's name on a ceiling mosaic that we really weren't supposed to take pictures of. According to the docent who told me I had to put my camera away, ceiling mosaics are rare because of the weight that they add and the difficulty that they pose to installation.
I took lots and lots of pictures of the things that we were allowed to take pictures of.
The main room is filled with quotations. I kept wandering around going, "This is my favorite one. . . . No, this is my favorite. Oh wait, look at this one . . ."
There were other rooms too, an exhibit on the historical progression of cartography and a tribute to Abraham Lincoln.
Upstairs was a room preserving Thomas Jefferson's library. The presentation was brilliant—bookcases stood in a semicircle in a clear casing. Every title was visible from both the front and the back, and computers let you browse some of the titles. Jefferson organized them according to idea, like "Imagination," which is where all of the literature was, mostly classical drama and poetry. To think how little had been written in the 1700s. . .
Yeah, I loved that place.
Right outside was the Capitol Building.
We couldn't go in that day, but we did get to look at it and imagine what was going on inside.
Next door to the Library of Congress was the Supreme Court.
We peeked in, and then realized that we could actually go inside with the tour. So we got to go all the way up to the bar and sit in the tiny room where so many pivotal decisions are made.
There was a magical staircase inside that, once again, we couldn't go on, but could look at.
We had lunch at the Museum of the American Indian, where they served things such as rabbit soup and venison.
We next walked down the Mall to the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum. Above is the Wright brothers' plane.
And this is Apollo 13.
It was a massive, shiny place with so many "that's really it!" things it was unbelievable.
We spent the rest of the afternoon in the west end of the National Gallery. Emily really liked this painting, and I did too, but I forget who painted it.
We spent some time on a couch conveniently placed before this Rubens, depicting Daniel in the lions' den. This man was making a stroke-for-stroke replica.
A Whistler that Emily also liked
That ubiquitous portrait of Washington
There were even more Vermeers here. I cannot believe how many I've seen now.
This Brueghel reminded me of another, "The Fall of Icarus," that I spent some time with last year when I wrote an essay analyzing the poem W.H. Auden wrote in contemplation of it.
A striking Van Eyck that I'd studied in art history
A Raphael
A da Vinci, the first I think I've ever seen. I've loved him since elementary school. He's the reason I write backwards.
This Renoir was on the front of one of my textbooks, which made seeing it that much more exciting.
I took pictures of almost all of the Catlins for Angelica, since she did that presentation on him last year.
"Watson and the Shark" by John Singleton Copely is one of those iconic images that stick in your brain, and it was incredibly brilliant up close.
That night, Frank drove us around to see everything lit up.
We stopped in front of the White House.
The Washington Monument
It was a long day, but only the first. . .
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