Finding time together

Been a bit busy for updating, lately. But last Friday was really good, and I wanted to talk about it a bit.

My wife and I took the day off, as an anniversary celebration. Usually, when we do something like that, we have a plan for what we're going to do (my wife's not big on spontaneity), but not this time. We'd talked about it a little bit, but couldn't come to any conclusion (though we did talk a bit about possibly going to an art museum).

But on Friday, things kind of came together, as I had a thought about going to the Nation Portrait Gallery. She asked where that was, and when I told her it was next to Verizon Center, she immediately said, "Then we can have lunch in Penn Quarter". I didn't really know what was there (it's changed quite a bit since my short stint working at the DoJ a few blocks from there), but said that it sounded fine.

We metroed over to the Archives stop, and started walking up toward Gallery Place. Seeing Oyamel, which my wife had once eaten at, we talked a bit (debating that, Carmine's, and an Indian place a little farther up), and decided to eat there.

Having only once had something resembling upscale Mexican food, I wasn't too sure what to expect. The Tuna Ceviche was an obvious choice for me (I'd had something fitting the same general description once at a place in NW), and my wife wanted the Chayote salad. The bulk of the menu being, in essence, tapas, we also got the Huevos Enfrijolada, Tamal Verde, BBQ pork taco, something with pork belly, and the cow tongue taco.

I didn't try the salad or cow tongue (I hate the whole squash family, and we didn't share the two tacos), but everything else was delicious. Even the chips and salsa were excellent. Oh, and the Oyamel margarita was very good, as well. So we were pretty full by the time we left.
It was a short walk from there to the museum, and we wandered around there for a while. We didn't have a plan, there, and basically followed the ground floor loop around to the far side. I didn't think much of most of the temporary exhibits, and I think my wife (despite being Chinese-American) liked them even less (although she did like the part of it in the main hallway). I liked Roger Shimomura's animation-inspired self-portraits, and Zhang Chun Hong's hair portraits (which are a neat idea); the rest? Not so much.

But after that, we got to the historical part, and that was more interesting. I did expect to have heard of a bit more of the people we saw, but I think it was less than a third, overall. And almost none of the pre-Revolutionary types.

What was even more interesting was the people of whom I'd heard, but had no idea about their appearances. Rockefeller's bust made him look like a ghoul. Poe, of course, looked very young. Henry James, I hadn't realized was even American. I thought he was a Brit. I was especially amused by his portrait, as it said he liked that particular one because it minimized his gut. I thought that was a bit peculiar, as the fixation on skinniness is mostly a much more recent phenomenon. In fact, for much of history, looking hefty was a sign of wealth; it signified that you had enough food and/or that your wife fed you well.

One other bit of trivia: I wasn't aware that Sequoyah was part white; I thought he was all Cherokee.

Anyway, one general reaction. I was irritated at museum policies. For one, why no pictures? I was really only planning to take pictures of the building itself (if it was interesting), but I don't understand why they don't let you take pictures. If you see pictures of a place that look good, does it make you want to go there, or to stay away?

Also, they want you to wear any backpacks on your front (to keep from bumping things). While I understand the idea, it really hurt my back to keep the camera (even though I only brought two lenses and a monopod with it) in front. I was probably getting close to getting kicked out because of it.

So, very few pictures. I took a number of the atrium, especially of its interesting roof. And I took a couple of the entrance, but even my widest lens was too narrow to get a good shot there (there was a bus parked in front to keep me from getting any farther back).

But we then drove out to Leesburg so my wife could get a couple of things at the outlets there. Traffic was a bit weird on the way. As one would expect I-66 was pretty bad (even worse than I would have guessed, given the hour), and the toll road was easy. The Greenway was also easy, but the mile or so on Rt 15 was terrible. And, for once, it wasn't people going into the shopping center.

Regardless, we got our shopping done (though it took much longer than my wife had promised), and headed into the old part of Leesburg. We ate dinner there at a French place we found when we were scouting locations for our wedding. It might not have been quite as good as previous trips, but it was still very nice. We'll go back again, I'm sure.

After a leisurely dinner, we walked around the old part of town for a little bit. I ended up wishing that I had brought my tripod, as there were a couple of pictures I'd've liked to have taken. (Especially annoying, since the reason I didn't take it was that I thought I'd be able to use a monopod, but not a tripod, at the museum.) In any event, after the walk, we headed back to pick up the kids at daycare.

The only negatives on the whole day were the photographic issues, and that lunch and dinner were close enough together that we weren't able to eat as much at dinner. And if that's your biggest negatives on a day, it's hard to complain. So, overall, quite an excellent day.