Day 6: Museum Mile Washington D.C.

14.04.2022

The weather forecast actually predicted continuous rain and thunderstorms from noon to evening today, which is why we planned our museum day for today.

However, looking out the window, it's clear skies and sunshine. Hm... let's wait and see. The only question is: what should I wear???

Long pants or shorts? After sweating so much yesterday, shorts were definitely the best decision. Another look out the window and the decision is made: shorts!

Today, we don't have any time pressure. The museums don't open until 10:00 am, so we can have a relaxed breakfast.

We walk along the Potomac through the Wharf to the next bus stop, from where a bus goes to the National Mall, and continue by bus to the National Mall. But this bus connection doesn't really impress us, because we still have quite a walk ahead of us. We see the same bus multiple times with the inscription Southwest Neighborhood Shuttle. We've already seen it at the Wharf. I'll have to use the internet later to find out exactly where it goes.

At 9:55 am, we are in front of the closed "National Gallery of Art - Sculpture Garden". The security guard opens the gate to go into the garden and immediately closes it in front of my nose:
"Open at 10 am!"

Oh well, we take it literally.... 🙈🙄

For 5 minutes, he stands inside next to the gate and plays with his phone, while the line in front of the gate grows, at exactly 10 am, he strolls to the gate and opens it.

Now we can go in!

By the way, admission is free here too - as it is at the National Gallery of Art & the Smithonian Natural History Museum.

The sculptures are quite funny, not all of them speak to me. Son and I particularly like the large fountain in the middle, which sends a light spray as a refreshment, because it's already very warm at 10 am this morning!

The forecast still claims that it will rain heavily with thunderstorms at around noon, with temperatures around +30 degrees. Let's wait and see 🤷🏻‍♀️

After seeing everything, we visit the National Gallery of Art. We stroll through the huge halls and admire the many artworks, photographs, sculptures, and exhibitions until our feet are burning.

Daughter and husband are in their element when we turn to the Impressionists. Daughter is looking for inspiration for her art course (she loves Monet's water lilies), and husband recalls all his (long past) knowledge from his basic art course and talks shop with our daughter.

Son and I quickly escape - we also find many interesting pictures and enjoy them from the generous sofas that are in the middle of each room.

Sitting - how nice 😇😝

I am more impressed by the paintings that look like a photo from a distance. This "realistic" painting - I find it amazing!!!

This has become my favorite painting 😍 

Small and unassuming, but it actually looks like a photo! And that in the year 1864, painted by a William Stanley Haseltine 🤷🏻‍♀️

After 2.5 hours, we're starting to feel hungry. We leave the gallery and walk to the many food trucks along the National Mall.

Still no sign of rain!

Today, we decide on a food truck that offers a plate of "Falafel with Rice" (otherwise vegetarian dishes are rare), this dish turns out to be "Salad with Rice and Falafel" - yay, salad! (Who would have thought that I would be so happy about salad, but after all the fast food, salad is a welcome change!)

We grab our food and have a picnic on the grass of the National Mall under the trees in the shade. Did I mention that it's already +30 degrees hot again???

And we're running out of drinks!! We always have backpacks with bottles of drinks, but now they're empty and we don't have any more drinks in the apartment to refill them. So today, we need a supermarket or something similar to buy drinks. But so far, in Washington, this has proven to be a real problem, because there are no supermarkets in the area! At least not according to Google Maps.

Oh well, we'll deal with this problem AFTER the museum.

While we're having lunch, a large truck with a cherry picker arrives and collects the many kites hanging in the trees. In the process, they also cut off rotten branches - and leave them lying around - stepping on them.... or!?

Yes, everything that was cut off is simply kicked to the side and left lying on the roadside. You can see accident remains everywhere on the streets too, in the form of car parts. Broken lamps and tires, glass, exhaust pipes, radiator, or even an entire hood - all of it is simply left by the roadside 😱🥴😥

After lunch, we go to the Smithonian - National Museum of History.

Here, it becomes apparent for the first time that it's not always a good thing to not need time tickets: it's crowded!!!

I haven't seen so many people in one place since COVID. There's no longer a mask requirement here, so we're almost the only ones still wearing masks. It doesn't make you feel any better when everyone around you keeps coughing and sniffling without a mask.

We visit the Ocean Hall, Hall of Mammals, Human Origins, African Voices, Fossils & Dinosaurs, and everything else that can be seen on the ground floor, then we go upstairs to some exhibitions, but it's so crowded and we don't really feel like admiring more "Minerals & Geology," so we leave the overcrowded Smithonian after almost 2.5 hours. Our feet are starting to hurt. Although we haven't walked a lot, all the standing and looking is also exhausting.

Outside, the sun has actually disappeared, thick clouds have gathered, and it's very windy, but still very warm.

We get a coffee from a bistro pavilion and relax before heading back to the apartment. In the museum's Wi-Fi, I found out that there is supposed to be a CVS drugstore at yesterday's metro station that also sells drinks and food.

We find the stop of the "Southwest Neighborhood Shuttle bus" and ask the driver if he stops at the L´Enfant Plaza metro station with the CVC store and then goes to the Wharf. The driver is very nice and explains to us that there is a CVS shop right at the Wharf bus stop, so we can "ride through".

Oh, that's perfect!! 👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻

So we get on the bus and the moment we do, the sky opens up. It's pouring rain and storming - the end of the world! Unbelievable!!! Within seconds! On the roadside, we see people's umbrellas collapsing one after the other because the wind is too strong. The bus driver only comments on this with a "Funny weather" 😝

The bus goes from the National Mall to L`Enfant Plaza, past the Spy Museum, down the street, and actually stops right in front of a CVS shop! Man, why didn't we discover the shuttle earlier??? The shuttle is actually FREE!!! We will definitely use it tomorrow to get to the metro station!

We run from the bus directly into the CVS because it's raining almost horizontally. Crazy! In the CVS, we find what we're looking for - they have all kinds of drinks! They even have frozen products, so maybe we can put a pizza in the oven tomorrow evening. Perfect!

With drinks in our backpack, we leave the store and behold: the rain has stopped, the wind is gone, and the sun is already breaking through the clouds again! A few meters away, we see a liquor store (in the USA, you can't buy alcoholic drinks in supermarkets - you get them in liquor stores) and we get something for dinner tonight (we still have pasta and a bottle of wine (the cheapest one starts at $13, we'll take the discounted bottle for $16).

Today, we're skipping happy hour - we have wine - and end the evening lazily in the apartment with fun card games. Cheers! 🍷🥂