Day 43: Washington, DC
Nau mai,
Yesterday we had a rest day in Washington DC.
We began our day with a farewell to our noble green steed Lavonda. At 10am we pulled up outside the venue who had opened their doors for us a day early so we could unload our gear. The trailer was emptied, and we went over the interior of the bus with a fine-toothed comb, checking every cupboard, drawer, and bunk to remove any existence that we had lived inside this vehicle for the past six weeks.
Lavonda dropped us at our hotel, and we said goodbye to Scott. It was 11:30am and the day was ours to spend. There are many fine museums in the capital, and I decided to head towards the Smithsonian Museum of American Art, stopping on the way for a bite to eat. The café was called maman, an establishment with a completely lower case name, and with a menu that followed this pattern of reckless non-capitalisation. I ordered myself a couple of situations, the first being overnight oats with maple cinnamon oat milk, toasted coconut, chai apple compote, toasted pecans, and banana chips. The second was a cranberry and blood orange croissant swirl with homemade cranberry and bloody orange jam and a white chocolate glaze.
I spent my afternoon and early evening inside the Donald W. Reynolds Center for American Art and Portraiture. It was a huge building to explore, and I covered as much as I could with the energy I had available. The Grandma Moses exhibit was particularly enjoyable, playful but expressive depictions of farm life in rural Virginia which spoke of the lifetime of experience she had working on the family farm before beginning her art career at age 78. Her ability to depict seasonal colours and express the chaos of harsh weather being visited upon these scenes is something to behold.
I had a good look through the contemporary galleries and a good chunk of the portrait galleries too, but somehow managed to completely miss the presidential gallery where there was an Obama exhibition. Fortunately, in the hotel lobby I found a nice photo of Barack playing with his dog and that was enough to tick that box for me.
Jon wiled his afternoon at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum and came back enamoured after hanging out with the original airplane, the 1903 Wright Flyer.
Everyone else enjoyed a day of resting and recuperating at the hotel, preparing for our final two-night stint at 9:30 Club. I walked back to the from the museum after dark and the streets were quiet and cosy, Christmas lights out and just waiting for that first magical dusting of snow.
