Washington D.C. Day 2

The second day that we were in Washington D.C. Josh headed back to his conference and I went by myself to the National Gallery of Art. I have to be honest that is just how I like it with art museums. I love art and loved the prospect of having the whole day to stare for as long as I wanted or as little as I wanted at anything I wanted. 

This fountain was in the foyer of the museum. It was incredible and the flowers were so beautiful.

This picture is called "Old Woman Dozing over a Book," by Nicholaes Maes. The pictures DO NOT do this painting justice. It was A.MA.ZING.

"Woman Holding a Balance," by Johannes Vermeer. Can you believe that I was looking at an ORIGINAL Vermeer.

Funny enough the last time I was here this was my favorite painting. I was so excited to see it again. The texture of all of the fruit was perfect and so life like.



Now this one on the other hand, i think I looked at forever! I love it! "Workman Before an Inn," by Isack Van Ostade. The detail was incredible.

There was a class there painting some of the artwork. Most of them were these way cute older people.

Okay people this is a DA VINCI. Yes an actual Leonardo Da Vinci. The color was indescribable. "Ginevra de' Benci".

It was mounted on a wall that had an open back that you could see the back of the painting also by Da Vinci. It was so surreal!

Okay this is a picture that I am sure you have all seen it is the actual painting that is the front of the dollar bill. It is amazing! By Gilbert Stuart.

I was in love with this one, although I think I edited it a little crazy. "A Quiet Day Near Manchester" by Alfred Thompson Bricher

"El Rio De Luz (River of Light)," by Frederic Edwin Church. Love it.

"Le Gourmet" by PABLO PICASSO. So cool to see this!

"Banks of the Seine, Vetheuil," by Claude Monet. I saw numerous Picassos and Monets. I was giddy in these galleries.

"The Olive Orchard," by Vincent Van Gogh. I LOVED this painting.

There were some wonderful sculptures and Asian pottery (not shown). "Little Dancer Age Fourteen-" by Edgar Degas. I love that there are cloth clothes on this sculpture. Breath taking.

After I was done with my 4 hours all to myself of serious bliss. I headed to The Corner Bakery for food (I once again opted out of eating and waited WAY too long). I passed the gigantic Capital Building. I love this angle. Can you see all of the police cars and armed guards with MACHINE GUNS. I don't know if I was more freaked out, or glad that I knew I was safe.
The Supreme Court. I was once again giddy with how ABSOLUTELY cool everything was !

This is the front of Union Station. When Josh came to visit me back in the day we were gong to lunch on Valentine's Day (we got engaged that night) and there were street vendors selling roses EVERYWHERE. Josh bought me some and a homeless guy that was close by started to talk to us, asking us lots of questions about our relationship. In the course of our conversation he found out it was Josh's birthday and on our way back from lunch he TORE (I mean like sprinted right at us) toward us and told us he wanted to sing "Happy Birthday" to Josh (I actually thought he was going to beat us up or something at first). He sang it good and loud and for Josh. Nice huh? A little disturbing, but nice.

Later that night I met Josh and we got some Starbucks hot chocolate. Their Salted Caramel hot chocolate is TO. DIE. FOR. They accidentally messed up my order (I like the white hot chocolate), and gave me their plain hot chocolate and it isn't really that good (no offense to you plain Starbucks hot chocolate lovers!), so sweet Josh traded me and let me share his yumminess and I drank the plain stuff too. It was so cold that we would get a lot of this stuff in the course of our 4 days.

And we bought some hats from a street vendor. I kept feeling like I was wearing an egg shell shaped hat on my head from looking out. I kept checking myself out in windows and mirrors. Anyone would have thought I LOVED my reflection, but I really just had to see if it looked as weird as it felt...maybe it did, but I liked it.

That night we headed to the Kennedy Center.

They have free performances at the Kennedy Center and I was so excited that they had one going when we got there, but it wasn't that great. So we just checked everything out.

Definitely a classy joint :) Oh how I ADORE Jackie Kennedy. You have no idea how many books I have on that woman (most of them fashion books).

To be honest the Kennedy Center didn't have that much to look at or listen to, so we decided to head. This was disappointing because we had to take a longer Metro ride (to the Foggy Bottoms stop, sorry but I thin that name is hilarious), and then a shuttle to get there.

Since we didn't have any other plans and I really wanted to visit the Pentagon City Mall since it too was one of my old hang outs. That sounds a little crazy that a mall would be a must see for me going back to D.C., but look at this place! It has EVERYTHING! So much fun.

We went shopping for a little while...oh how I love shopping.

And then we went to Johnny Rockets for dinner. Fun day!