6-25-22 Changing residences, Hirshhorn - Museum of Modern Art, Natural Museum of Natural History

 Nathaniel and I each had a Cobb salad for dinner - super delicious - loaded with avacado and chicken.   Dave had another burger and while as good as the first, I think he may be getting tired of them.  Nathaniel ordered carrot cake for dessert and allowed me to take two bites.  I was a very good cake.  By the time we got back to the house, we had walked 20,047 steps (about 8 1/2 miles).  We continued played hand and foot again, but only got through two of the four rounds.  Nathaniel is in the lead, but we will see if he can keep it.

We got up this morning and packed for our trip to a hotel in the city.  Somehow when I booked the trip, I miscalculated and came up a day short here so had to book a hotel for the last night.  Before we left, we took a paper towel and disposed of a can that has been sitting down the street since we got here.  Nathaniel put it in the recycling.

 We got to the hotel way too early for check-in so we had them hold our bags and went off to the Hirshhorn Museum of Modern Art.  The top floor was an exhibit by Mark Bradford.  It was a series of floor to ceiling mix media murals called Pickett's Charge.  Nathaniel really liked it, but I just thought it was okay - not my style I guess.  The second floor was my favorite.  The artist was Laurie Anderson. Her works were all stories using music, film, performance and virtual reality.  One of the rooms had sayings written on the walls and floor.  Some of them were poignant and some humorous.  In one room Nathaniel and I sat at opposite ends of a table made by the artist.  There were small hollows in which to put your elbows and if you covered your ears, you could feel the vibrations of a song that was playing even though there was no audible sound.   Our last stop was to the ground floor to see the artist Yayoi Kusama.  She is best known for her polka dots.  There was a mirrored room which you could go into and lie down on hundreds of polka-dotted balls and look at yourself replicated in the mirrors.  Unfortunately we didn't know ahead of time that you had to have tickets to get in and they were sold out for the day. 

We walked up to the Smithsonian Castle for lunch and decided since Dave had missed the National Museum of Natural History and his pick of the mummy exhibit, we headed across the street to grant his wish.  Nathaniel was as excited as Dave to see the exhibit.  He enjoyed the story of a female mummy with an intricately carved mummy case.  He also enjoyed the amulets that were place in with the mummies as good luck charms in the after life.  Our last stop was to explore the elephant discovery displays on the mezzanine.  The last pic is of Nathaniel standing next to an elephant leg bone.  They are both about the same height.

We took the Metro back to the hotel and our room was ready.  We left Dave to take a nap while Nathaniel and I put our suits on and went to the pool.  The water was just slightly chilly so after a bit we got into the hot tub.  I stayed out of the water, but Nathaniel went in for another swim.  Although he said he was rusty, he got better and better with his strokes as he swam across the pool several times.  We looked up some of the restaurants on the hotel's suggestion list, but nothing appealed to us.  Nathaniel suggested we go to McDonalds which was just a block down the street as a treat (to him, not us in particular).  We ordered at a kiosk and while ordering Dave's meal (he had secured a table), I didn't realize that the fish sandwich came with cheese.  I went up to the counter to order new ones, but the manager thanked me for being honest that I had made a mistake and did not charge for the corrected version.  He was so sweet to do that for us.  He said most people would blame the mistake on the staff or the computer and said he appreciated my honesty.  I thanked him and said his mother would be proud of what he had done.  Meanwhile Dave found some hungry guys who were happy to take the free mistakes.  We feel like slackers - only 10,087 steps today.  Nathaniel just got out of the shower so we will continue our card game.  We are off to Philadelphia by train tomorrow and our next adventure.