Days 8 and 9

Day 8 - Chelsea Piers, Brooklyn Bridge, South Pacific

I woke around 7, but stayed in bed until around 8. At 9:30, I went down for breakfast; Audrey was still asleep. About 10, I went downtown on the subway to Rockefeller Center, it was beautifully surrounded by American flags.


The Chrysler building is my favorite and I had heard the lobby was lovely, but I couldn’t go that far in. I did like the ceiling.

I started to take the subway to Chelsea Piers, but being Saturday, the trains don’t run as often. When the train I was on stayed at a stop for about 5 minutes, I got off and hailed a cab. The driver was from Niger, when I said that it was a nice day, he said that it was nice for me, but not for him since everyone was walking. He asked where I was from and when I said California, he responded with “Oh, the Golden State.” I confirmed that and let him know that only the government had any gold. I told him about our taxes; he was astonished that we had to pay almost 2% of the property value every year.

Shortly after noon, we had lunch on the boat and headed south down the Hudson. In addition to our group, which consists mostly of St. Andrew’s folks, there are a couple of other groups, I suppose there’s about 200 or so guests on the boat. The waiters are all singers, mostly not very good. I wish the Vanguard students could get up and sing. We went past Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty, everyone ran up on the deck to take pictures. We went back down to the lower deck when they announced dessert. They had line dancing, I wish we could do some real dancing; I couldn’t convince Breck to be a my partner. At 2pm we returned to the dock.


Sorah guided Juli and I to the bus, from there, we took a subway to the Brooklyn Bridge and walked across it. Earlier in the day I told my parents my plan to walk across the bridge, my mother let me know that my great grandfather had worked on the bridge, now it has special significance. At the beginning of the bridge, it is very crowded, but as we continue, it thins out, I think that a large number come just to have their picture taken on the bridge. The bridge has some great views of Manhattan.

On the other side, we took the subway back to Manhattan to get Juli up to the Metropolitan. We needed to transfer and so went to Grand Central Station, since Juli had not seen that. When I asked her about Rockefeller Center, she didn’t know what that was. We stopped there and at the Waldorf Astoria, then took the train to the Metropolitan.

I had Juli buy me a student ticket, by now, between my previous visit to the museum and the cloisters, I’ve already given the Met $40, the price is suggested donation. Juli met Margie and Kimberly in the fashion institute exhibit, since I already saw that, I went to view the 19th century paintings and saw some new Van Goghs. About 6pm, we ate dinner in the Met cafeteria.

We then headed to Lincoln Center, I’m thinking of getting tickets for South Pacific, or even ABT. We took a taxi and arrived at the Center about 7:10. The tickets are expensive, and I really want to see Billy Elliot and hesitate as I’d rather spend my money on that. By now, it’s 7:20 Margie thinks we can get down to Time Square to check on the show, on our way to the curb, we run into the Melton’s, James convinces us that we need to see South Pacific. Juli doesn’t want to see the show, but James convinces her as well.

The show is fabulous, the actor playing Emile is the understudy and is fantastic. This was the first I’d seen the show and I love the music. The acting is wonderful, not only Emil, but Bloody Mary as well. The actor playing Cable reminds me of a young Daniel Craig (the current James Bond.) After the show, we walked back to the hotel and I stayed up until 1 blogging about the day before.

Day 9 - First Baptist Church, Lunch with Carrie and Sean, the Frick

This morning, we sang at First Baptist Church on the upper West Side. Call time was between 10 and 10:30. I was going to take the train, but Ashley, Sarah and Juli caught up with me and stopped at a cafe for breakfast to go. By now, we have only 20 minutes to get to the church.

It’s a mile walk, and we can take the train, but since it’s the weekend, it might be quicker to walk. We arrived right at 10:15. The church is older and holds probably 500 people, with the Vanguard choirs and some of the St. Andrews choir, we are probably 150, maybe more than in the congregation. The singing is wonderful, the sermon rough, but sincere. Carrie and Sean came to the service.

After church, Carrie, Sean and I walked the street fair up Broadway. It’s a fun experience and good to spend time with Carrie and Sean. Carrie and I got a Gyro for lunch and Sean a Burrito. Sean drove me to Times Square to see if I could get tickets for either Billy Elliot or Guys and Dolls.

There are no tickets available for either show. I called Audrey, she was waiting for me to go to the Frick. I walked back to the hotel and by now, the bottom of my feet are killing me. I literally kept them up in the air for 5 minutes, then put them in a tub of cold water.

At about 3:15pm, Audrey and I headed for the Frick, since there is not a direct train or bus, Audrey and I decide to walk. We are both in pain and it takes us about 45 minutes to get there. The museum is small, but nice, kind of like a miniature Huntington Library, without the gardens. There are a number of Turner, Vermeer, Romney, Whistler and Gainsborough. I noticed today that most of Gainsborough’s women subjects have Bride of Frankenstein hairdos.

Audrey used the free audio guide, so it took her longer to go through the museum. I went and sat by the fountain in the center of the building, then stood by the doorway of a gallery on the cool marble in my stocking feet. I talked to the guard, a gentleman from Guyana that had previously run a company of 41 people. He hated that he was now working for someone. We talked about how America was a big country and he could move somewhere else to do something else. At 5 the museum closed and about 10 minutes before, they collected Audrey’s audio guide and started shooing us out of the museum. That is the odd thing about NYC, the museums are not very friendly when it’s near to closing time.

We went across to Central Park to sit and rest our feet for a while. About 5:30 we started walking down 5th Ave. And was at about 51st when Margie called to tell us her plans for going to Serendipity 3, Audrey and I went to a nearby Indian restaurant for dinner. It was delicious. At about 7:30, we started off for Serendipity 3 and arrived at 8. The wait was about 1.5 hours, one woman had been waiting for that long and hadn’t been seated. I placed my name, but told Audrey, I didn’t want to wait. We split a Turtle Sunday at CPK, then took a taxi back to the hotel. Audrey is surprised that I would take a taxi. We arrived at 9 pm (we would have still had another ½ hour wait had we stayed), then went up to pack. It’s been a wonderful trip.

Day 7 - Rehearsal, Tea at the Plaza, The Cloisters, Performing at Avery FIsher Hall, Party at Tavern on the Green

Juli and I met for breakfast at 8:15, then walked to Avery Fisher Hall to hear Vanguard practice. In an attempt to travel lightly, I left my backstage pass in my choir folder. I apologized and went to get my ID, but since I was with others who did have their passes, the guard just let me in. A young gal from DCINY took us from backstage to the theatre, we went up and down a series of steps, I’m glad we have someone to guide us.

The theatre looks dated (1960’s) and is in the style of an opera house, with a large main floor and then rings of seats around the wall. The acoustics are great and the choir sounds wonderful. We get to listen to them sing about 4 songs, then the DCINY staff leads us backstage to the green room. After a while, we line up to process on to the stage. I am so excited I can hardly stand it, and this is only the rehearsal. We ran through the mass once, then went over a couple of numbers a second time and after instructions were released to go.

A couple of interesting tidbits, James brought Elizabeth Johnson, the Jung Trio, one of the student cellists and Sorah - another professional, to play with the orchestra, Elizabeth was to be the concertmistress. Apparently, the union rules state that for Elizabeth to have that role, we would have needed to provide more than half the orchestra. James was not happy about that, particularly since he had rehearsed so much with the 6 that he brought with us to provide leadership.

The musicians here are very snooty and think that ours are inferior because they are from California. Jung-A Lee has a little micro organ to play and one of the string players told her that she needed to set a certain stop, she let him know the organ doesn’t have that stop. Another told her that the A she played for them to tune off of was too soft. She set a specific stop for that tuning, so it would be louder, but informed him later that she would not set that for the performance, since it was in the wrong octave. The ironic thing is, Elizabeth has her masters in violin performance from Peabody, the two younger Jung sisters and Sorah have their masters from Yale, Jennie has her Doctorate from Juilliard and Jung-A has her Doctorate from a prominent east coast school.

We are all supposed to carry black folders, I left mine on the seat of my car back in California. They have extras and the girl that is in charge of those gave me hers during rehearsal, so I wouldn’t have to worry about it right before the performance, very nice of her. I also volunteered to carry in the folders of two of the Vanguard girls, so this means that I will tote around 3 folders, with music, all day long.

After rehearsal, Juli, Ashley, Sarah and I went to the Soul Bread cafe for lunch. We started walking to the park and ran into Michael, Andre, Adam and Greg and walked as far as the park with them. From there Juli and I went to the Plaza for a cup of tea/coffee and desert. While we were there, Michael and his buddies came walking through and Adam took some pictures of Julie and I. Our waiter is very attentive and takes another picture of us, so we took a picture of him. He got very excited and gave me his e-mail address so I can send it to him.

From the Plaza, we set off for St. John the Divine Cathedral. We took the orange line, which lets us off at the top of the park, in Harlem. After walking about a block or so, I had us turn around and go back to the subway. I later learned from Jennie, we should have taken the red line. We got back on the train up to the Cloisters.

The Cloisters is a recreation of a monastery, built using bricks and capitals from ancient monasteries and churches. It has art and is part of the Metropolitan. The gardens contain plants that would have been found in a monastery. From the subway station, one walks through a lovely, peaceful park that runs along the Hudson. It is beautiful and peaceful.









We returned to the hotel about 5:30 to get ready for the concert. At 6:15, we met in the lobby, talked to Jung-A, then walked to Lincoln center. At 7:20, a large part of the St. Andrews choir met to take a picture for the local Newport Beach newspaper, the Daily Pilot. After taking pictures, Juli and I went to get dinner at Barnes and Noble’s Starbucks cafe.

The first half of the concert was the International Honors Wind Ensemble. I wasn’t looking forward to hearing them, because I thought it would be a bunch of flutes, and I don’t really like flutes. I went in after their first number, only to find out, it has t a bunch of brass as well, I’m very happy. I’m surprised how many people there are in the hall, most of the orchestra is filled, as well as the first ring of seats.

At intermission, the folks from DCINY came to take us backstage. Vanguard sings their program first, but about half way through, the other two choirs and the St. Andrews choir lined up and went backstage. When Vanguard finished their program, they stayed on stage and we filled in around them.

There are about 600 - 700 people in the audience, many more than I expected. Everything went very well and the concert was over before I knew it. I was so happy and excited, I don’t think I stopped smiling the entire time I was on stage.

After the concert was over, we walked to Tavern on the Green and had a wonderful party. The restaurant was decorated beautifully and a buffet was set up on the patio. The food was good, the deserts even better; everyone was in high spirits. We stayed at the restaurant until 1am, then caught a cab back to the hotel. It took time to unwind, so I didn’t get to sleep until about 2am.

Day 6 - Rehearsal, New York City Ballet

I woke around 7am, Audrey and I got ready then went down to the hotel cafe for breakfast, at 9am, about 10 of us headed off for the rehearsal hall. The directions are kind of sketchy, I’m sure they were from mapquest, I ended up being the leader to the rehearsal hall. We arrived at Good Shepherd Chapel, the directions said Rose Building, 10th floor. We asked someone outside the chapel how to get to the 10th floor, we were told to go around to 65th street, we did that, the people in charge there didn’t know anything about our rehearsal, so we went back to the chapel, of course, that is where we were supposed to be. I have no idea why the directions said anything about the Rose building.

We practiced until just before noon, Juli Reitler, Margie Taylor and I walked to the SoulBread cafe for lunch. We sat at a table on the sidewalk, and ate our soup and sandwiches.

We rehearsed again and then had a choir festival with the other choirs. The Vanguard choir is fabulous, but so are the two high school choirs. There are about 15 to 20 students from each of the two private Christian high schools that are singing with us. Rehearsal is over at 3:45.

Audrey and I walked back to the hotel and relaxed for a while. At 6pm we walked to the Carnegie Deli for dinner. It’s a very popular, crowded restaurant, we essentially sat a table with 6 other people, there were 4 separate tables, but pushed together. We split a corned beef sandwich and coleslaw, and had more than enough to eat, there was probably 4 inches of meat, they had to bring extra bread. While we were eating, Audrey saw John Huffman walk in, but thought he was with another person. After we finished eating, we went to say hello. He asked if we wanted to join him for some chocolate cake, but explained that we were on our way to the ballet.

When we got to Lincoln Center, we went to the box office to get Audrey a ticket, but the only tickets she could get were more than she wanted to spend, since she wasn’t sure she would enjoy it. I waited for a while for Grace, Barbara Rippee and the Fergusons, but didn’t see them, so went to my seat; it’s the second row from the top. There’s a young guy sitting next to me; he’s a studying acting, we talked for a while, he was relieved to hear that I didn’t know anyone like the real housewives of OC.


The Ballet was the best dancing I’ve seen in 30 years (when I saw Baryshnikov). The pas de deux in the first act was enchanting. Mercutio stole the show, unbelievable leaps performed spectacularly. For the curtain call, when Benvolio came out, I thought he was wearing purple, so I yelled Bravo, so when Mercutio came out, I yelled bravo again, then added a woohoo. There were a bunch of curtain calls, well deserved. During the intermission, I bought a tee shirt. I wanted to get one that had the 5 positions of the feet, but it was long sleeved and ugly. I still have the beach towel with the 5 positions of the feet my brother gave when I graduated from high school. The performance was being recorded for PBS.

I’m getting voicemails about 24 hours later. During one of our rehearsal breaks, I saw that I had 4 voicemails, 3 of them from yesterday, one of them from my dermatologist. Good news, I don’t have lupus, praise God. The Oreacia seems to be helping the rash, I’m not as bumpy and hardly ever itch, but the redness is about the same. When I look in the mirror, I don’t look as red as I do in the pictures, I’m probably about the same as before I left. It doesn’t look like Gillian’s prediction that I’ll be rash free by the time I return will come through, bummer.

Days 4 and 5

Day 4 - NYC

I woke early and went down to wait for the taxi about 7:30. At 7:55, I woke Jenny to say goodbye, she came down to wait for the taxi with me. The taxi was late and didn’t arrive until after 8:10. I asked the driver which would get me to Union Station the fastest, the taxi or the metro, he recommended the metro. I got to Union Station 15 minutes before the train was to leave, so I didn’t get any breakfast; I’m really glad that Jenny sent some of the cookies I baked last night, that became my breakfast.

The ride on the train was very pleasant, across the aisle from me was an older Indian woman at the first stop a young asian man sat next to her. When he wasn’t reading an asian book they had a nice conversation. The conductor was a woman that came to get the Indian woman when it was time for her to get off the train, even got her baggage down from the overhead. It was encouraging to see so much kindness. And I also got to experience kindness, both at Penn Station and at the subway when total strangers helped me carry my suitcase up the stairs.

When I checked into the Holiday Inn, I asked to verify my rate, since I was quoted a graduated rate and Kay confirmed it should only be $188/night. After going round and round, I got Kay on the phone and determined that Kay’s rate did not include breakfast, but mine did. I checked in, as I’m walking down the hallway to my room, I thought the smell was awful, when I walked in and saw 3 ashtrays, I knew I why it stunk. I called the front desk, only to be told that they didn’t have any non-smoking rooms available.

I asked the concierge for someplace to eat, it’s now 2pm and all I’ve had is a few cookies, yikes! I went to a cute restaurant called whym. The hostess is a wholesome, friendly young girl, my waiter arrives right away, he is energetic and friendly as well. I had a chicken and beet salad and adored the green vegetables. For desert I had a smores’wich, mmm, mmm, good.

I thought the vanguard choir was singing at St. Paul’s Chapel at 2:30, so I went to the A -train. As I was going down the stairs, I noticed the train was at the platform, ran down the stairs and leapt through the doors as they were closing. I got cheers and adoration. I said, I hoped I was on the A train, only to be told I wasn’t. It turns out the C train went to Broadway/Nassau, just not as fast as the A train. The woman sitting next to me asked if I was from New York, I laughed and said no. She said that was a pretty bold move for someone that doesn’t ride the subway all the time. She was very friendly and we chatted until she got off.

I got to St Paul’s, only to find out that they sang at 1pm. I walked around for a while, then got on the subway and off at 33rd street, then walked to Macy’s Herald square. I need new socks as the ones I have with me are old and keep falling down into my shoes. It’s also warm and I have no open toed shoes, so I bought new socks and also sandals that are on sale.

When I was down at St. Paul’s I texted Michael McCalip and heard back from him at Macy’s. He recommended I contact Doc, which I did. James had just finished dinner and was meeting Michael at a Starbucks. I walked up to 54th street, met James, then walked to the Starbucks. We bought tickets to see Concordia College from NY in the Weill recital hall that’s part of Carnegie hall. They were rough, but enjoyable. After the concert, we walked across the street to the hotel the Vanguard students are staying in. Michael and James got their jackets and the three of us walked to Lindy’s for a late dinner/dessert. We sat and talked for quite a while. They both walked me to my hotel, then James went to the front desk to see if they had a non-smoking room, they didn’t. So now I am in my stinky room typing my blog. Time to go to sleep.

Day 5 - Central Park and Lower Manhattan

I woke shortly before 7, waited 10 minutes and called the manager, she wasn’t in yet. I called 10 minutes later and talked with her about my room. She said one would be available in 10 minutes. I took my time getting ready, ate breakfast and switched rooms. I then set off for the Guggenheim.

The weather is perfect today, sunny and warm; walking through central park is delightful. At 89th, I exit the park and go to the Guggenheim. I’m not expecting to like much about the Guggenheim, except for the architecture. The main exhibit is dedicated to Frank Lloyd Wright, although there are other paintings, Cezanne, early Picasso, Kandinsky, and others. I really enjoyed the museum. It’s not as large as it seemed in the movies. The exhibit was very interesting, it’s surprising how many of his designs were never built. It makes me wonder if they can be built now.

I took the 5 train down to Lower Manhattan to hear the Vanguard choir sing in Trinity Church. They sound even more fabulous than usual, their voices are perfectly suited for the live acoustics. Walking to the subway, one of the students asked me to help him unhook his bowtie, apparently when I did that I dropped my metro card, and realized that after we turned a corner. I went back to look for the card, but alas, a metro card on the streets of NY does not last long. I hope the person that found it really needed it. When we got to the station, the train we needed just pulled up. I managed to buy a new metro card, get through the gate and enter the train all before it left the station.

A group of us went to the Green Deli, just down from Vanguard’s hotel, then went to the Metropolitan Museum. By the time we arrived, it was 3:40 and the museum closed at 5:30, we thought that’s still 2 hours. We started out in the European section on the 2nd floor, but soon split up. Jennie Jung and I stayed together most of the time. At about 5:10, they started shutting down the rooms and shooing us out of the museum. We thought that maybe we could go in the store, nope, they barred us from entering that too.

We took the bus to 59th street and started walking back to our hotels. I didn’t know how much internet access and so wanted to look into getting an air card, I figured with everything else being so expensive, it would be cheaper to buy my own internet access than use the hotels. I walked past the apple store, so went in there to see if they knew where I could buy one, they said I should go to either a verizon or AT&T store, that it would probably be $60/month, but that I would have to sign a contract. It’s a good thing I didn’t buy anything, internet access is FREE in our hotel. WooHoo!

I went to a station and got on the Q train to go meet Carrie Nygard and her boyfriend Sean, James and Stephanie Nygard and their children Oscar and Eva. (James and Carrie are cousins, both of them are my 2nd cousins.) That was not good, since the Q train goes to Brooklyn, I wanted to go to lower Manhattan. As soon as I saw daylight, I knew I was in trouble. By the time I got to the first stop in Brooklyn, it was 6:15, I thought that was OK, I might only be a few minutes late, maybe even on time to meet them, no, the next R train didn’t come until 6:30. I got off the train about 6:40, called Carrie to get specific directions to where we were meeting, since Independence Ave disappeared, or so I thought. Stephanie got on the phone and directed me to the restaurant. James and the kids came out to meet me. We had a lovely visit sitting outside at a restaurant on the marina. At about 8, We started walking towards James and Stephanie’s apartment. Carrie, Sean and I got on the R train toward uptown. I then came back to the hotel. It’s nice to have one night to relax, although it has been a full day.

Audrey Taylor is my roommate, although she wasn’t here when I returned to the room, she came in about 10pm, she is reading a book while I type.

BTW, I finally have decent internet access, so I’ll be uploading my pictures to Picasa every day, the link is http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/sredir?uname=Singndance70&target=ALBUM&id=5336991244863973393&authkey=Gv1sRgCNbEtta3j-Kd_gE&authkey=Gv1sRgCNbEtta3j-Kd_gE&feat=email

Day 3 - Georgetown and The Mall

The day started out on the cool side, in the 40’s. Jenny, Louis and I went to a cute diner for breakfast, I had waffles and the best, crispy bacon, absolutely perfect. From there, Jenny and I went to their shop, Everard’s Clothing, in Georgetown.

Everard’s is a charming shop specializing in fine men’s and women’s wear. I had fun trying on dresses and bought two. One is black silk with cap sleeves and white rosettes on the sleeves, the other is an embroidered goldish beige, with mandarin color and frog closures. http://www.everardsclothing.com/womens.html It’s a good thing I don’t live close by, everything is adorable, I’d be broke.

At about noon, I set off for my tour of Georgetown, it's already warmer. I walked a short distance to Dumbarton Oaks, but since it was Monday, couldn’t go inside. I then started roaming the neighborhoods, admiring the architecture. The homes are old and a variety of styles. There are some that remind me of Dublin, there are others that remind me of Burano as they are all painted a different color. One of the houses had a street lamp that was a true gaslamp. I came upon Tudor place, a home built by George Washington’s granddaughter. I had expansive grounds and gardens; it was closed as well, but I did get to walk the gardens. I walked to Georgetown University and around the campus some, then over to Dupont Circle to catch the metro to downtown.

While walking the neighborhoods, I called my parents and my dad said there was a new air and space museum out at Dulles AIrport. When I arrived at The Mall, I went to the main air and space museum to get directions using public transportation. I found that the by the time I got out there, the museum would be closed, so scrapped that idea, I wandered that museum a little and was disappointed that my favorite airplane, Chuck Yeager’s Bell X-1 was no longer hanging from the ceiling. Maybe it’s at the auxillary museum.

I walked to the Newseum, but arrived a little more than an hour before it closed. Admission is $20 and I didn’t want to spend that much and not get to see everything, so I left and wandered to the United States Botanical Garden. It’s very beautiful, but not necessarily spectacular, many of the plants are in my mother’s garden and arranged just as artfully there. I did see a plant I liked - False Indigo, I’ll have to see if I can get it at Roger’s.

By now it’s 5pm, so I make my way to the metro station and back to Georgetown. I bought a metro ticket, but forgot it was rush hour, so when I tried to leave the station, it rejected my ticket. I had two other tickets with money left on them, but it’s not like gift cards, you can’t combine them. A station attendant showed me where I could top my card off so I could leave the station.

I must look like I know where I am going. When I was on the mall, a couple asked me how to get to the Natural History museum (I knew and told them) and going up the Dupont Circle escalator (I swear that is in contention for the world’s longest escalator), 2 young boys asked me how to get to National stadium (I knew and told them).

The walk back to Everards seemed long, mostly because I was tired, I probably walked 7 miles today, only stopping to get a pistachio milkshake, which I drank while walking. Although I arrived after the store was closed, Jenny and Louis had customers that stayed for another hour.

Jenny, Brenna the dog and I went to the fish market and grocery store, then came home and made dinner and cookies and watched Dancing with the Stars. I hope Shawn wins. After Louis came home, we had a lively, but friendly, politcal discussion over a delicious dinner. A wonderful day.

Days 1 & 2- Traveling and Washington DC

My first trip on Jet Blue. I really like the plane and the flight attendants are very friendly. I'm glad I'm on the aisle since the guy next to me is linebacker size, and he does pretty much spill over the seat, but he is very nice and doesn't mind when he has to move his arm so I can adjust the volume or channel on my TV. I rented Confessions of a Shopaholic, very disappointing, the book was much better. There's only a slight resemblance between the book and the movie. Afterwards, I watched the Preakness pre-show for an hour and a half and then the plane landed before the race was run. Aaagghh! I found out afterwards that Rachel Alexandra won, bummer, I wanted Mine That Bird to win.

Elsa picked me up at the airport and took me to their home. I love the hostas in the front and the trees in the back, it’s like a forest. Seby and Vinny - the cats - and I become friends. After chatting for a while, Greg and Elsa made a delicious dinner of chicken and beef kabobs. We stayed up talking until midnight, it was a lovely evening.

Day 2- Washington D.C.
I woke around 8 a.m. After sleeping straight through the night. Greg made bacon and french toast, yummy. We went to Maclean Bible Church; it’s a mega church, but not as showy as Saddleback. I really liked Lon Solomon’s sermon, it was the story of Legion, he also used Jesus healing the shriveled hand on the sabbath as illustrations about how Jesus cared more about people than manmade rules and things.


From there, we went to Jenny and Louis, where I changed clothes. Louis took me to the metro; I took the orange line to the Mall. It’s cool and blustery. I walked down to the WWII memorial. It is very impressive. From there I walked to the National Gallery.













OK, let’s talk about some of the art. Daniel in the Lion’s den - if you are in a den with 9 lion’s are you really going to be sitting down with your legs’ crossed. Granted his face looks like he’s pleading, but otherwise, he looks pretty polite.















Next, there’s the most unusual Madonna and Child. Jesus has his hand in Mary’s top and has a very lecherous look on his face.



















And then there’s the painting of Jesus getting baptized, John the Baptist must have either been Lutheran or Presbyterian. For all those that believe otherwise, see, you don’t need to be dunked.


At about 5pm, I walked back to the American History Museum; they’ve completely redone it. My favorite exhibit was the Price of Freedom that talks about all the wars from the Revolutionary to the Vietnam war.

At 6pm, Louis and Jenny picked me up at the museum and we drove to a restaurant near Georgetown that has Cuban and Mexican food, very good food. Greg and Elsa met us there. After dinner, we walked around the neighborhood looking at all the lovely homes. Driving back to Jenny and Louis’ home in Arlington, we went through Georgetown. Jenny and I are now on our laptops.