D.C. - Day 6 - Gallery of Art, Mus. of American Indian, Memorials

What an exhausting day! Starting from 9am when we got on the Metro, to 10:30pm when we finally got home, we still did not get to everything we had planned.

First, we went to the National Gallery of Art (west bldg). This featured some of the most famous Byzantine, Italian renaissance, Dutch masters and French impressionists in existence.

Both Dean and I liked the Italian renaissance the most. There is just something about that style of painting that is just amazing. What interested me was how vivid the colors were. I often think of the renaissance period as being mostly muted colors, but that was just not true based on some of these pieces. I also did not know that this period featured some hyper-realistic painters. There was one picture , especially, of a vase of flowers, that was so realistic, I thought I could reach into the painting and pluck a flower. Here is that picture, and a detailed shot of one of the tulips.

After that, we went to the National Museum of the American Indian to have lunch. They had some really exotic food there--most of it I could not pronounce. I really wasn't in the mood for anything really exotic, so I settled for the most un-exotic thing I could find: a buffalo burger. Dean ate a shredded buffalo bbq sandwich.

After lunch, we toured the museum. I have to say that this museum is the most aesthetically pleasing museum I have ever been in. Most museums of American Indian art I have been too are just rows of baskets, pottery and kachina dolls in glass cases. Most art museums force you to read little plaques on every little thing to get the story of what is going on. This museum is nothing like that. Designed in an open-air style, the museum is designed in 3 large sections: universe/beliefs, people/history, lives/contemporary life. Curved 3/4 walls in meandering, non-linear form, reminds one of meandering journeys and rivers. Rather than displaying individual pieces of art with little plaques, pieces are grouped into themes and displayed in a highly artistic fashion. Single plaques and video clips tell the story in greater detail. One such example is the collection of gold and the story that gold had in the coming of the conquistadors and the conquering of the Aztec, Mayans and others, the stealing of their gold, and the mass shipment of that gold to Spain that uplifted their economy. Once we were done with the American Indian museum, it was already 3:00pm, so we decided to call it quits for the afternoon and go back to the hotel for a quick rest before our night Memorials After Dark tour. So, after a brief rest, we went back to D.C. and ate dinner at the Old Post Office (where we also picked up our tour bus). We then toured all the major memorials: Korean, WWII, Iwo Jima, Washington, Lincoln, Jefferson, FDR, Vietnam, plus the Capitol and the White House. Most of the memorials were dramatically lit for night viewing.
One of the most striking was a field of soldiers on night patrol through the jungles of Korea. Dramatically lit, it was very emotional, and clearly designed for night viewing.

Probably the most brightly lit memorials were the Washington monument and the Lincoln memorial. The least lit was the Vietnam memorial (which I have never really liked).

At one point it was possible to see the Lincoln Memorial, Washington Monument, and Capitol building all lit and in a row. Twas very cool. Our 3 hour tour was supplemented by bottles of cold water to help cool one down from the walking and the fantastic commentary from our tour guide. After the tour ended at 10pm, we hopped onto the Metro, rode home and immediately fell into bed.