Washington, D.C. Portion of Trip

    We left Matthews and drove to Washington. It was smooth sailing until the last 60 miles and then - lots of traffic! So, by the time we got to our hotel, we were tired....and, then, it was the wrong downtown Marriott! Meanwhile, they had taken our car and we had unloaded all our luggage! But, we retrieved the car and reloaded it. Then - off to the correct Marriott which is by the Convention Center. 

Eggplant, walnut filling

    We went to Supra restaurant nearby. It is a Georgian restaurant and we've never had Georgian food. We had an eggplant dish, a cauliflower dish, some Georgian bread and sausages and pickled gherkins. 

   

Sausage, pickled gherkins

April 6

   Today, we walked over 3 miles! First, we walked from our hotel to the Renwick, the Smithsonian's craft museum. The first floor was closed, unfortunately. 

This quilt was made from choir robes and cloth from Ghana

Tribute to the Tuskegee men who died from syphilis experiments

You lie on the floor and look up. It is based on data from the tsunami and earthquake in Japan in 2011, which put the earth slightly off its axis. The color changes in about the same time it takes to watch a sunset.

Reflections of buildings

     Then we walked to the bakery, A Baked Joint, to meet Liz Skokan. En route, we visited the Carnegie Library, which is now an Apple store. We complained about that, but then found that Apple paid to renovate the beautiful building. There was an exhibit in the basement about the history of  area and the library.

Old map of Washington, D.C. at Carnegie Library

Carnegie Library with Mark waving

     Then - on to meet Liz. The bakery was really packed and we waited quite a while, but the bonus was having the time with Liz who chatted about her job, her fiance and her life, in general. It was great.

     In the evening, we watched Purdue beat NC State, to get into the finals. Needless to say, Otis is very excited.

     We wished Cole a happy birthday, too. It's hard to believe he is 25!

  April 7

  Today we walked 4 miles!

  We spent most of the day at the National Art Gallery which is always a treat.

Georgia O'Keeffe

Edward Hopper

Can't remember artist, but it shows the displacement of people for a bridge in NYC

Monet

Van Gogh

Seurat

Wyeth

   Then we walked back to 'our' neighborhood where we ate a delicious meal at the Unconventional Diner on 9th Ave. Mark had a deconstructed corned beef hash which he really liked. Barbara had a sweet potato curry with chickpeas and two fried eggs and she really liked hers.

    Then - back to the hotel where we watched the NCAA Finals in women's basketball. S.C. beat Iowa State in Caitlin Clark's final college game for Iowa.