Back in the Saddle Again

Not so long ago, the CPA and I were adventurous people.  We’d check out cool places around town like the Library of Congress and the National Cathedral, and we’d attend events such as the Whoopi Goldberg dinner and we’d visit the annual cherry blossom trees.  But a year or so ago, coinciding with the beginning of my morning sickness, oddly enough, these adventures came to a screeching halt.

But, after a year long hiatus, we decided to give it a try again.  We figure that we should be able to go to fun places and see interesting things just like we did before.  Now we’ll just bring our baby along and make sure the place is kid friendly and there shouldn’t be a problem, right?

So when my sweet husband called me on a recent Friday afternoon and said that the office was closing early and asked if I would meet him downtown, I jumped at the chance.

Rather than mess with finding a parking spot (and deal with Friday afternoon traffic) Henry and I rode the Metro downtown, changing trains at Metro Center…

so that we could get off at the Chinatown exit.

We didn’t have to walk far because our destination, The National Portrait Gallery, was straight ahead.

Now I know what you’re thinking.  A gallery of nothing but portraits?  Boring, right?  That’s what I was thinking anyway.  But I had heard it was good so I was willing to check it out.  The CPA had been before and also gave two thumbs up.

He was outside waiting for us and Henry was so excited to see his Daddy that we sat for a bit in the Atrium and just visited.

Visiting time was fun.  (Isn’t this just the cutest baby-Daddy bonding time you’ve ever seen?)

Oh – and I was there too.

Then we headed to the special exhibit – Steven Spielberg and George Lucas’s very own collection of Normal Rockwell paintings.

Unfortunately, I couldn’t take pictures inside the exhibit, but I will say this – it was awesome!  I went in not really caring about Norman Rockwell’s paintings and I came out a true fan.  So much so that we went home and ordered a copy of this print to hang in Henry’s room:

After the Rockwell exhibit, we crossed the hall and entered the Smithsonian’s American Art Museum (apparently they share the building).

I was surprised to see pieces such as this:

and this:

We didn’t stay long though and a few minutes later we made our way to the actual Portrait Gallery.

There are a few different floors in the gallery, but at this point our baby was getting tired (okay, we were getting tired) so we saved the upstairs for another day.

We did get to see some cool paintings though, such as this one of Pochantas:

and this one of John Brown (crazy painting, huh?):

They had a painting of Sherman (which makes me think of the line from Gone with the Wind, “The Yankees are coming, the Yankees are coming!”)

which was part of this great Civil War exhibit.

There was even a painting of Joseph Smith, who founded the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (of which I’m a member) in 1830.

Finally, it was time to go.  We only spent a few hours at the museum but it was really cool and I definitely want to go back and see the rest when we have more time.  But for now, I’ll end with a picture of this:

Look closely – Can you tell what it says?

I have to say, it’s good to be back at it again, I’ve missed our little adventures.  I can’t wait for more!