All over the map . . .: Still here in D.C.!

April 30th - Tomorrow is Alessa's birthday, so we celebrated a day early with a Skype call!! Well, this was SO FUN - Graydon visited with us just as if we were there!

Alessa took her laptop outside - Graydon wanted to show us
his new bike! Waaayyyy coooollll !

. . . and then she showed us around our yard! We got to see the beautiful tulips in bloom - and even Tinkerbell, hanging out

under the birdbath!

WoW - almost like being there . . .

And here - our first and only campfire - nice job Harold!!

So May 1st - probably the worst weather day since we got here! But that didn't deter us. Got up and proceeded, with Harold's new bike, to D.C. Plan for today - bike out to Arlington Memorial Cemetery . . .

Our ride took us through the city along Pennsylvania Avenue and right past The White House Visitor Center. We'd been in here a few days ago, but on this grey day, I decided I should get a picture of the beautiful azaleas out front . . . .

We pedaled along through the mist, going behind the Lincoln Memorial and on over the Arlington Memorial Bridge. Lots of other folks out on their bikes today in spite of the wet weather! Approaching the cemetery, we stopped to admire the SeaBee monument - love their motto which says in part: the difficult we do immediately, the impossible takes a bit longer!

And then there's the Cemetery . . . we parked our bikes and walked the grounds

. . . sobering.

A solemn hike took us past the gravesites of President Kennedy and his family

. . . his most famous speech inscribed at the site.

At the top of the hill is the Arlington House, once home to Robert E. Lee. The cemetery spreading all around covers what was once General Lee's plantation.

Harold on the steps of the grand Lee mansion

Did you know that Robert E. Lee was married to the daughter of George Washington's adopted son! Well, this is where Robert and Mary Lee lived and raised their seven children!

Well, we saw much of the cemetery through a light mist and decided we better pedal on "home" before the real rain came! But we did take one extra little loop around the Tidal Basin to check out the Jefferson Memorial . . .

. . . and then to the metro station - heading "home"

The next morning we heard about the demise of Bin Laden! Woohoo! Checking the news we learned there'd been some celebrating over in front of The White House the night before after President Obama made the announcement. We'd planned to go to D.C. today and just take in the art museum. But I wanted to hustle on in and pass by The White House to to see if there was any lingering jubilation!! We did NOT take our bicycles today and ended up doing a LOT more walking than planned!!

A beautiful day! Stopped at the Navy Memorial near the metro station.

If you enlarge photo, you'll see Harold back there!!

News of the day!!

Our National Gallery of Art! The grand edifice itself is a true work of art! The splendid rotunda, massive towering Italian black marble columns drawing your eye to the elegant dome above. Richly paneled gallery walls, ornate and shining chandeliers, gleaming brass fixtures all around and, everywhere, that beautiful marble! In the 1930’s, financier, art collector and public servant Andrew W. Mellon made a gift to the people of the United States - a vast collection of old master paintings, sculptures and a building to be built on the National Mall. The museum was at the time the largest marble structure in the world.

just a small part of the expansive sculpture gallery

I love the Degas ballet dancers!

Docent's choice - a Mary Cassatt

A comfy spot for contemplation!

Well, we didn't have near enough time this day to get our fill by closing time. We knew that we'd be back here soon!

A few days later we were back in the city. On the way to the art museum, we stopped for a quick look inside the National Archives Building . . .

Another remarkably beautiful building - "monumental"
rich in architectural detail - all marble and brass inside!!

Pretty cool to view the actual Declaration of Independence, Bill of Rights and The Constitution. As I never paid much attention to history in school, I greatly appreciated the excellent displays, not just the documents themselves, with all the whos, whys and hows! It’s a great story about great men (and women!) doing great things.

And THEN - back to the National Gallery of Art - so exciting and relaxing at the same time to steep in the culture of this magnificent collection of incredible ART!!

Mary Cassatt is one of my favorite American painters, so I'll share a few of her works I had the pleasure and privilege to see here . . .

"The Boating Party"

"Girl Arranging her Hair" & "Mother and Child"

More pretty pink azaleas - these in a courtyard garden of the Gallery of Art

And then yesterday - yet another glorious day of biking. We set out wanting to take in the National Geographic Museum. What a beautiful day! Today we pedaled out of the main tourist area adjacent to the National Mall. We saw a lot of the business district, very interesting - all hustle and bustle! I had located a Trader Joe's away from the center of town and wanted to stop in there.

This was fun, because our route took us in a whole new direction. Besides the business section, we meandered through an area known as Foggy Bottom, and rode down several residential streets - houses there reminded us a lot of New York!

We finally arrived at the National Geographic Museum. Currently undergoing renovation, we did get in to see a large and impressive collection of (as you would expect!) very impressive photographs!

In the courtyard at National Geographic - awesome gorgeous polished granite!

Saturday May 7th - Today began as a stay-home day. Harold had some work to do on the motorhome and I found a few things to keep me busy. But then we decided it was such a nice day - we should go for a scoot . . . .

We found the historic section of the city of Greenbelt, near the park where we're staying. And they just happened to be celebrating their annual Green Man Festival. What a fun and funny event! Music, dancing, food, artisans with their wares.