Mary Oliver

"Tell me, what is it you plan to do

with your one wild and precious life?"









Wednesday, January 9, 2013

Washington Weekend

Steve gave me a weekend in DC as one of my Christmas gifts, and so we drove up on Saturday morning. We had gorgeous weather, sunny and brisk, but perfect for walking a lot, which we always do when in DC.

(Warning: link heavy paragraph)

We didn't have too many things planned, as it was just one night, but we managed to fit in quite a lot. We went to KramerBooks & Afterwards for lunch, and then shopped at Looped, which was right across the street. It was on the second floor of an old building and the natural light and old wood was the perfect setting for some beautiful yarn. I bought two skeins of handspun yarn, and some buttons to finish up a cowl.

We spent an hour or two at the National Cathedral, which included seeing their crèche collection from around the world. After popping into a thrift store, then browsing the aisles of Politics and Prose, we ate dinner at a cool Mexican restaurant, and then we checked into our suite at The Churchhill, a luxury hotel near DuPont Circle. After sleeping in on Sunday, we ate brunch at Teaism, a quirky little place nearby, before walking over to visit The Phillips Collection, an art museum that is housed in an old mansion. It was an amazing collection of mostly modern art, including Renoir's, Luncheon of the Boating Party, a couple of paintings by Georgia O'Keefe, at least four Rothko paintings, and the Migration series by Jacob Lawrence. We spent the rest of the day walking the streets in the Kalorama neighborhood and taking pictures of as many of the embassies as I could, before heading to Alexandria and fibre space. After buying some more lovely yarn, we drove home in time to see the premiere of the third season of Downton Abbey. All in all, a wonderful and relaxing weekend.

Enough talking, here is the good stuff, in no particular order:

Panda statue in someone's front yard.

 

An Irish patriot, and Steve, an Irishman.

Statue of St. Jerome, in front of an embassy.

A friendly embassy cat.

An embassy's coat of arms. Ghana, maybe?

Private residence yard art.

Interesting blue door.

Kalorama street art.

Artist plein air supplies.

Statue of Ghandi, near the Indian Embassy.

The Phillips Collection statuary.

The original entrance of the Phillips Mansion.

Phillips Collection statue.

Steve and the Phillips Collection courtyard.

 

Georgia O'Keefe

Stained glass in the museum, part of the original mansion.

View from the Spanish Steps.

Day of the Dead masks in the Mexican restaurant.

More Day of the Dead, with twinkle lighting.

National Cathedral stained glass.

 

 

Crèches.

National Cathedral entrance.

Looped.

Looped.

See you soon.

4 comments:

  1. Wow, you packed a lot in. Love all the pictures, but I am not sure I would have made it out of Looped, love the Christmas Tree in the window.
    Hugs,
    Meredith

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  2. Ohhh, I am so homesick for my home of 16 years! My son, James, was a chorister at the National Cathedral and is an alum of St. Albans, the boys' school on the Cathedral Close. We lived within walking distance of Politics and Prose and it was definitely one of our favourite hangouts. The yarn stores have sprung up since my time, though. I MUST get back. Maybe the Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival could be my excuse...

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    Replies
    1. It's such a beautiful city, so many wonderful places to walk! As for Maryland Sheep & Wool, hope you can go! A few friends and I are just beginning to plan for the trip, so we could meet up! Keep me posted!

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