Monday, 11.17.14 - U.S. Capitol tour, Library of Congress, House of Representatives, National Portrait Gallery then home!

I have an open day as Beth has an Impact Assets Board meeting after which we fly home. So I was quite fortunate to be able to make a last minute appointment to take the tour of our U.S. Capitol. I felt overwhelmed by the history, culture, politics, Art as well as the architecture of the Capitol (The Architect's Virtual Capitol).  Obviously it's huge and our tour only saw a small portion of it all but I very much enjoyed it.

As you can see from my photo of the Capitol is under renovation

U.S. Capitol under renovation

Ulysses S Grant - reminds me of the Steve Stern stories of the man!

After my tour of the U.S. Capitol I walked over to the Library of Congress.  What a beautiful building they have all kinds of art, like this War poster, or any of these War posters. Or even these Civil War photo's.  I loved the Library of Congress architecture.  Being a library they have all kinds of cool stuff like these Rosa Park's papers.

From here I walked over to Nancy Pelosi's office as I wanted to see if she would give me a pass to get into the House of Representatives.  My first surprise was her door! Our San Francisco Giants had just won our 3rd World Series in the past 5 years and Nancy had our SF Giants on her door!

OK so Nancy Pelosi did NOT come out to give me a pass but I did get one!

It was a tremendous feeling to be in the House of Representatives.  While they were NOT in session there was still Representatives introducing their Bills, it was way cool to be inside this place.

From here I walked over and had lunch at a wonderful Indian food restaurant Rasika, it was awesome.

I still had some time after lunch and before the end of Beth's Impact Assets Board meeting…..so I walked over to the National Portrait Gallery.  I was especially interested in seeing the President's portrait's.

I LOVED DC, lot's to see and do even in the Winter.  I was so nice to see and spend time with Kimberly and Julia.

Sunday Brunch with Julia Flessel

This morning/afternoon we met Julia Flessel in Capitol Hill, where she lives.

We met her at Ted's Bulletin restaurant for brunch.  DC is a hip and happening place the nice bars and restaurants always seem to be full.  Each meal we had in DC we had to wait from 45 minutes to 1 hour, including this brunch with Julia.  Since we had the time we walked from Ted's Bulletin to Julia's apartment.  Julia recently graduated and is working as a legal assistant in a small DC law firm. She shares a nice 2 bedroom apartment at a park in this nice part of town and it was nice to see where she lives.

Once we got back to Ted's Bulletin our table was ready and it was time to enjoy.  This spot is known for their home made POP TARTS.  They also have ADULT SHAKES…..I had the Grasshopper with Kahlua and Creme de Menthe it was delicious.

Ted's is like an old fashion diner…..black and white TV with rabbit ears, showing Shirley Temple movies the morning we ate there…..it was a very nice morning and afternoon.

I loved my homemade Pop Tart

After this we went back to our hotel room and relaxed.  Beth had a work dinner this evening so I ate in the hotel and watched the football game on TV.

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Saturday in D.C. with Kimberley!

We met Kim today at the Smithsonian National Gallery of Art which was featuring Degas "Little Dancer". Last night, at the Kennedy Center we saw a production of Little Dancer.   Here are some photo's of the actual Little Dancer.  I never knew that Degas used detritus to make this statue as well as real hair, a real tutu, etc.

Inside the National Gallery of Art

Little Dancer information

A real tutu and that look…..

Real human hair!

From here we walked over to the National Museum of the American Indian to have lunch in the Mitsitam Cafe.  One of Beth's work colleagues at Impact Assets suggested we try it as they have some Native American Foods.  It's wasn't as exciting as we thought it might be! 

From here we went over to the NEW Newseum, a museum about NEWS.  How unique was it that we went with Kim and they had a display about the Berlin wall.  Tell me which side of the Berlin Wall you are on in each of these photo's

East or West?

East or West?

East or West?

We walked around outside of the Mall for a bit more then we all went back to our hip Kimpton hotel called The Topaz to rest, relax, have a glass of wine and then go out for dinner.  We ate at Le Diplomate a wonderful French restaurant.   Of course a table was not available when we wanted to eat so we walked across the street and had a cocktail in Barcelona prior to dinner!

It was a wonderful day that we all enjoyed!

D.C. - Friday, November 14, 2014 - Visit Impact Asset in Bethesda then the National Mall

We started off our Friday by taking a 25 minute metro ride from DC to Bethesda, where Beth's company (Impact Assets) has an office.  It's a small 4 person office, Beth wanted to visit them while she was in DC.

Upon returning to DC we decided to walk the other Mall Monuments prior to heading over to the Lincoln Center to see a production of Little Dancer.

We started off at the Jefferson Memorial which is quite impressive.  From here we walked over to the Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial.  I loved both of these.

From here we walked to the Martin Luther King Memorial.   While it was cold and windy today we enjoyed being able to walk around these memorials.

From Jefferson Memorial looking at the Washington Memorial

Jefferson Memorial

FDR

Korean War Memorial

Original colors NO photo enhancement!

MLK

Fall foliage

Lincoln Memorial

Washington, D.C. Thursday, November 13, 2014 - The sculpture garden and the Mall

After sleeping in we started our day at a local hole-in-the-wall breakfast spot called Lincoln's Waffle Shop.

From here we walked to the National Mall and Memorial Parks.   We first visited the outdoor National Gallery of Art Sculpture Garden.

Are you old enough to remember typewriter erasers!

From the sculpture garden we walked up the National Mall towards the Washington Monument

We were lucky to get tickets to go UP in the Washington Monument, which we did after we visited the WWII Memorial and the Lincoln Memorial.

WWII Memorial

WWII Memorial

Vietnam War Memorial Wall

Flowers at Vietnam memorial

Could this be a distant relative of my Brother-In-Law - Ery Morry Fortney

After walking about 5 miles we relaxed in our hotel room for a short while.  Tonight we are meeting my niece Kimberly Kappler-Dunaier for dinner.  Kim lives in Arlington and works at Hilton's corporate office in McLean, VA.

We ate at PROOF restaurant, it was excellent.  They also have interesting photo's on the walls of the men's room…check em out!

Washington D.C. in the Fall - Wednesday, November 12th, 2014

Since our last trip/vacation to Cabo San Lucas, Mexico in January we have enjoyed Northern California, especially Kenwood.  We have reworked the east side of our Kenwood property and turned the former mobile home and parking locations into flat open areas. We plan to build an outdoor kitchen to add to our new fire pit, planter boxes and hot tub.  Just prior to departing for this trip we finished the planting of maybe 500 plants along with a drip system.

Thus this short vacation comes at an excellent time.  It also seems to have meant to be.  Beth had a business trip to Denver and could have come home for 3 days and then fly to DC.  Instead she went directly from Denver to DC and I met her there prior to her Impact Assets board meeting.

Today, Beth flew from Denver with a delay of 4 hours and I left SFO and my flight was delayed 3 hours, however we both made it safely!

Given our 8:30 pm arrival and the distance Dulles airport is from downtown Washington, D.C. we arrived checking into the Grand Hyatt D.C. and took a short walk to get salads to go for dinner!