Washington Day Three

A nice morning with a cup of coffee and good bagel and cream cheese. After a day in sandals and a skirt, today was downright chilly.

We walked to the East Wing of National Gallery of Art where they house the modern collections. They had a woven arts exhibit. I love fabric art. Some showed home furnishing swatches and others sculptural pieces. The texture is the thing. The debate is is it craft or art. Seen traditionally as women’s work, its craft.

The tunnel running between the East and National gallery is a work of art too. Very space age. I did a little shopping and had a nice lunch gazing at the underground waterfall.

The National Gallery of Art, like most all the museums, is free. You can wander in for an hour or spend the whole day. Either way you get your money’s worth. I would spend many days wandering around discovering works and different corners of this museum. I visited some old favorites and, with Bob’s knowledge, learned more about what I was seeing.

Late afternoon Bob and I took the Metro up through Ward 5 and 4. It is, again, nothing like when I lived here. Whole swaths of what was industrial land and rundown neighborhoods are entirely built up with apartments. None reach past the 10 stories limit dictated by the height of the Capitol Building. It makes this city so light not having tall shadows.

We arrived at Chris and Judy’s home for dinner. Mary Jean was not far behind. As this is DC and these were my pals during my political career, conversations veered toward the state of the nation (USA, of course) and the tangle of political issues and pols.

I find myself feeling more and more Canadian as the years tick by. Washington sees itself as the center of the nation and the world. When I lived in Portland, that “inside the beltway” mentality nearly disappeared in relevance and interest. Now in Victoria, I can see the consequences of living in a smaller-in-significance in terms of world power, nation. We can carve our own path modeled on our own values and culture looking to Europe first and US second; at least that’s my view. From immigration, abortion, guns, and media, the differences are pretty big. I’m happy for that.Read more