Today, the kids and I met some out-of-town friends on the National Mall, a two-mile long stretch of museums, monuments, gardens and memorials running in the three-block-wide spaces between Constitution and Independence Avenues in Washington, D.C. We walked almost from one end to the other, craning up at the Washington Monument, looking at 4000 year old figurines from Southeast Asia, feeding very aggressive pigeons, eating hot dogs and pretzels, riding merry-go-rounds, and seeing the most amazing art I've ever seen at the National Gallery of Art. Seriously, I was inches from the brush strokes of Van Gogh. . . .
. . . and Monet. . .
Rooms full of them. Gorgeous. Amazing. Wow.We capped off the day at a Brazilian restaurant on Pennsylvania Avenue, where they carved the meat off stakes right at your table. And now I'm off to bed because we are headed back tomorrow afternoon for another day on the Mall (and maybe Chinatown, yum).