July 22 -- rest of the day

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I had lunch at Alpha PieHouse.  Loved the ambience.

Enjoyed the food!  The salad, especially, was delicious.  I would eat there again, if I lived in Washington.

The Renwick is right on Pennsylvania Avenue, across the street and just a little west of the White House.   I had planned to walk from the Renwick, past the White House, but the road was blocked because there was a demonstration.  People from another country, yelling.  I don't know exactly who they were yelling at, but it felt like they were yelling at me.  I guess if we're going to be the world's bully boy, we need to expect to get yelled at.  Sigh.

After lunch I walked east, and discovered that the part of Pennsylvania Avenue that is right in front of the White House was not blocked.  I was able to walk right up near the fence and take my picture.

I wasn't the only one.  Notice diversity in this small group.  I wonder if they are all US citizens, or if some are from elsewhere.

East of the White House, on Pennsylvania Avenue.  You used to be able to drive on this street.  I hate terrorists.  The ultimate vandals???  Shame on each and every one of them.

Walking on, toward the National Museum of Women in the Arts.



Oh my!  This is definitely my favorite new building of this trip!  This is the National Savings and Trust Company building, at the corner of New York Ave NW and 15th.

Love the architecture (all those curvy bits, sticking out), love the colors, love the details......

I believe all the red is terracotta.

I didn't think to go in (it's still a bank), to see if the lobby was cool.  Darn.  Another item for my "next time in DC" list!



Walking on......  I got to the Museum of Women in the Arts.  They told me I didn't need to pay an entrance fee, because several parts of the museum were closed.  How nice, to have one of these museums acknowledge to every person who comes in that it's a problem that part of the museum is closed!  Thank you, Museum of Women in the Arts!



Anther self-portrait.  This is Jane Fortescue Seymour Coleridge.  She pained this picture in 1842 when she was 17.   What a lot of talent and skill! 

Wondering what happened to all of this skill and talent, I looked in Google.  The first hit is that the National Portrait Gallery in London has three portraits by Jane of her husband John, "1st Baron Coleridge."

Second hit in my Google search is for a Wikipedia article on John, and here is the sum of the info on Jane:  "Lord Coleridge married Jane Fortescue Seymour, daughter of the Reverend George Seymour of Freshwater, Isle of Wight, herself an accomplished artist who notably painted John Henry Newman. They had three sons and a daughter. His first wife died in February 1878."

I am glad her creative self wasn't completely surpressed, but it's hard not to regret what she might have done, had she not been required to produce a large family (and probably to manage a large household?).

Perhaps her life was exactly as she might have chosen it.  I hope so, but it seems unlikely.  Sigh.



I've said before, and, no doubt will say again, that I am not in favor of politics in art, and that I avoid it when I can and do not enjoy it when I see it.

It's not a surprise that most of what is in the National Museum for Women in the Arts is political.  Sigh.



Here's something that *was* a surprise to me.  Did you know Sarah Bernhardt was an accomplished sculptor?  I didn't!

This is "After the Storm," c. 1876.  Apparently Sarah saw something like this after a storm near the Breton coast.

I spent about an hour and a half in the museum, and then headed back toward the zoo.

Another hot day in Washington.  Noting the variety of architecture, but too hot to linger over it.

Back in the hotel room, enjoying my sky view.

I could see that pointy thing on the horizon.  I thought maybe it was the Washington Monument, but could not tell with the tools I had available.

 I think it was.  Cool, to have it in my view from the hotel!

I couldn't decide if this was a hotel or an apartment building.  It seems to have tiny balconies, which would lend weight on the "apartment" side of the equation, but there doesn't seem to be any *life* in this view.  No plants, no ... nothing, except curtains.  (I didn't think to look, after dark, to see how many of these windows were illuminated....)

Nice sunset.................

That horizontal smudge, about a third of the way from the left, is an airplane.  National Airport is very near the city.  Planes flew back and forth across this section of sky while we were there, and planes are a common sight from the National Mall.

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