Happy Halloween!

We have some very energetic neighbors on our block whose holiday decorations more than make up for those of us who choose to channel their creativity elsewhere....

Looking across the street at this for the last few weeks, I've had the impression that, for a substantial part of my childhood, I would have been scared ****less by having such a critter in my yard. But I also suspect that today's kids are made of sterner stuff.

At any rate, I hope you all have a happy Halloween, and are visited by just the right number of cute and respectful trick-or-treaters to finish off your candy. That's what I'm wishing for!

Out and about in the District

I was fortunate enough to spend more time seeing D.C. this trip, instead of just the inside of hotel meeting rooms. I got there early enough Sunday afternoon to do some rambling, and went out on other excursions Monday and Tuesday nights. Which allowed me to take enough pictures to make three posts out of the trip. [see my description of the National Portrait Museum here]

This photo of the Washington Monument was taken on our walk from the Smithsonian Metro station, across the National Mall, to the Portrait Museum, which is a few blocks north. It was a lovely day, and I'd like to have walked more, but there wasn't that much daylight (or energy) left after a long multi-modal travel day.

I really wish the meeting had been held a couple of weeks later, so that I could have seen this fabulous public space crowded with sanity-seeking kindred spirits. But, as it was, almost empty, it was still worth a photo or two.

In addition to monuments, the Mall is chock-a-block with museums. The newest is the National Museum of the American Indian, which we visited shortly after it opened, a few years ago, on a pre-blog Washington trip. This time, I was there after hours, but there was enough light left as we approached it to snap a facet of its unique architecture:

I got to go on this excursion back to the Mall with some friends by virtue of being in the right place at the right time. They happened to have an extra ticket to a lecture on the aurora borealis given by a Norwegian space physicist. [It didn't having anything to do with Native Americans, except a few references to prehistoric peoples' legends about the lights; the lecture's sponsors just took advantage of the nice auditorium in the new museum.]

What an interesting, educational, and all together Washingtonian outing! We finished up the evening with dinner at a nearby pub, which accounted for some of my London reminiscing.

Although cultural destinations like the American Indian Museum are the architectural jewels of the capital, I think most of the government buildings are impressive in their own right, as well. And not only the buildings. We happened to walk by this appropriate little garden plot, complete with stalks of corn, outside of one of the Agriculture Department's buildings; again, right on the Mall:


And non-governmental, or formerly governmental, buildings, are eye-catching all around, too. Thanks to google maps I was able to identify the handsome church you see on the left as the Calvary Baptist Church on 8th Street, spotted as we left the Portrait Museum.

One of the buildings visible from my hotel room that I initially couldn't identify is the Old Post Office, now a shopping/dining/entertainment venue.
It was the landmark that guided us from the Mall to the Museum. Fortunately there was just enough light when we passed it after dinner Sunday for me to take the snap below.

One of my friends said it looks like a castle—don't you agree?


This miscellany is just a tiny tidbit of what's neat to see in Washington, but I was glad to be out and about even just this much. It's a city we can be proud of as our capital, and I enjoy every visit.

Wordless Wednesday: Room with a View

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Portraits

Blessed with a little extra time in D.C. last Sunday before the start of my annual librarians' meeting (you can see blogs from last year's meeting here) I made a beeline for a major museum that I'd managed to miss on earlier visits:


This is the impressive facade of the National Portrait Gallery and Museum of American Art—two museums for the price of one. And considering the price is free, it's really a bargain!

Even just getting to walk through the building is a treat. This is the Great Hall up on the third floor:

Here's the fabulous skylight crowning this space:

And, of course, the portraits are very enjoyable. There is a gallery containing not only portraits of all the Presidents, but some newsreel footage of them from the mid-20th century on.

Even more fun are the collections of non-political figures, like the "Champions" area featuring sports icons like Nolan Ryan [and how about those Rangers?!].

They have most of the portraits (and some sculptures, as you see on the left) in rooms according to chronology, and it's quite entertaining to see who all were contemporaries of whom. Generally speaking, I enjoy likenesses in less than completely formal sittings, and found the pieces like the John Mitchell bust to be my favorites.

Doesn't it look just like him? Shifty eyes and all.

Combining the Portrait Gallery with a more general art museum is a great idea, since looking at pictures of people, no matter how varied and well-executed, after a while wears a bit on the tourist.

So you just wander over into the art galleries and see some wonderful pieces such as these:

Thomas Hart Benton's Achelous and Hercules


The Dying Tecumseh by Ferdinand Pettrich

Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone by Thomas Moran
(I've been there but my Dad's slides don't quite compare to this!)

I saw almost everything in the museum before my legs gave out. Perhaps I can pick up the galleries I missed on a future trip.

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I was able to do a few more fun things during my stay, in and around meetings. You can read about some of them, and also see more about the Portrait Gallery, in this London blog post, and I'll work on a collection of "out and about" photos in the next few days.

Wordless Wednesday: moving water

New technology goes traveling

As you might have noticed last Wordless Wednesday [and, I know, it wasn't exactly wordless—I'll have to confess if the blog police come to my door] I have a new camera.

And, I have an almost new computer. I'd been having trouble with my work-supplied laptop and got it re-imaged. Wow! Windows 7 seems OK and everything looks so much sharper and clearer. Is it really? Or is it just the psychology of having the latest new thing?

[In the interests of full disclosure, the thing I like most about it so far is that Mahjong is in the games folder!]

At any rate, I'm busy learning to use the new software, and also to remember what things I need to re-load on the clean slate of my hard disk and what things I can do without.

All this technology-related activity, plus planning for my annual trip to Washington for a librarian confab—those are my excuses for neglecting the blog lately.

Hopefully, though, the wait will be worth it. Before I fly out on Sunday morning I'll be paddling tomorrow with the new waterproof camera. Then since I arrive in Baltimore at noon Sunday, and the weather's supposed to be fabulous that day, I'm hoping to have time to take a lot of DC tourist pictures in and around the Mall.

So look for some snappy new river and monument photos, and some good stories to go with them, in the coming weeks.

Wordless Wednesday: new camera!

Isn't it pretty?!

More Pearls

It took me so long to find a parking place that I almost gave up. But I would have missed out on bringing home this lovely collection of edibles:

in addition to the easily identifiable baguette, I have fresh mushrooms, radishes, purple hull peas and some extremely skinny eggplant!

They came from the Pearl Brewery Farmers' Market, which I visited for the first time this morning. And the reason for the parking difficulties: it was the grand opening for the CIA's new building, right adjacent to the market site.

Not the I'll have to kill you now CIA, but a much cheerier owner of the acronym, the Culinary Institute of America, San Antonio branch. There were all kinds of cooking demonstrations, free samples, tours of the kitchens, etc., and there was going to be entertainment later. Including, I imagine, a speech from the mayor, who I happened to glimpse as I passed the as-yet-vacant stage. [He's the gentleman on the right in this picture who looks like he's about 18.]

I really was just there for the market, so I passed on the entertainment and the long lines for the samples—better for weight control anyway. But the festive atmosphere was fun and I enjoyed snapping some photos:

kids marveling at slabs of unidentifiable meat...I did, too!

Institute students in one of their fishbowl kitchens...a more transparent workplace than the other CIA, don't you think?

an appropriately-constructed sculpture at the CIA's front door

an old Brewery building in the background with the new edifice in the foreground

I was very glad that my earlier trips to the area, including the latest just a couple of weeks ago, gave me enough familiarity with the layout that I was eventually able to find that parking place. I'm planning on more trips to the market on less crowded Saturdays, going home "full of goods" to cook with.

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The pictures I took today [and I call your attention to the fact that this is a blog post written the day of the event! a first for me...] were with my good ol' reliable, twice-dunked, camera, still hanging in there. I had planned to test my new camera's waterproofness on a paddle this morning, but since it hasn't come yet I blew off the river altogether in favor of the market. Maybe that test will happen next week.

Wordless Wednesday: ropes and ladders

A River Walk, revisited

Some of my long-time readers might remember a tour of the newest section of San Antonio's River Walk from last summer. I hadn't been back to the area since, but when Hal and Carey were in town for a few days last week, I thought it was time for a re-visit.

This time, we walked both ways, starting out with a nice lunch at a new restaurant, walking the mile from the Pearl Brewery to downtown and then turning around and coming back. The picture at the top of the post is of the ever-growing Brewery complex, featuring a new parking garage as well as various new businesses. And they're not done, as you can tell by the construction machinery much in evidence.

The new eatery we sampled is La Gloria, and you can see our tasty queso molcajete appetizer at the right. The menu here features interior Mexico street food, which is why H&C, real street-food aficianados, wanted to try it out. We thought the food was good, and the atmosphere was very nice, with the patio right on the river at the upstream end of the River Walk's Museum Reach.

thanks to our friendly waitress for taking this family picture

After we ate, Henry headed back to the
salt minesoffice and the kids and I headed downstream toward downtown.

I didn't take many pictures of the Walk's public art pieces; you can see some of these in last year's post. But I did snap some miscellaneous scenes that caught my eye, like these two:

bridge with tile inlays and a late-blooming crape myrtle


sun reflections from the water compete with public art under a bridge

The midpoint of our walk was Main Plaza, a newly refurbished urban space that—used to be, should be, and perhaps will be again—the heart of the city. And its jewel is San Fernando Cathedral (which you can read more about here). Here's the view of the Cathedral and the Plaza as you come up from the River Walk. We used the new, and very logical, connecting walkway between these two spaces that we're so lucky to have:

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Those who might be wondering if I've gotten my new camera yet, will want to know that these photos were taken with my trusty—though half-dead—old camera. However, my new, waterproof machine has been ordered! Can't wait to get it and try it out! I'll post a picture of it as soon as it arrives.