Hi Y’all,
So this is the last of the emails about our adventure “up north.” We’re lucky we got back when we did and hope everyone we know in the path of Sandy is safe and sound. I have already heard from our Massachusetts friends and they were quite lucky that mostly Sandy missed them. Our time here in the US is getting short. Friends in Turkey, at the marina have emailed us to make a plan for the big Thanksgiving Dinner that is being organized. So though we will be sad to leave Roanoke, we do have lots to look forward to when we return to DoraMac.
Ru
The very last stop of our “up north” travels was a visit with my cousin Lisa and her husband Richard and also a visit with my first college roommate Eileen and her husband George. Luckily for us they both now live in McLean, VA. We gave them each about a 2 minute warning that we were in town and happily they could arrange time to see us.
Richard and Lisa with me and Rey in the middle.
Rey has a rather odd doggy expression on his face, but he is really very sweet and friendly. We (but not Rey) went off for a lovely Italian dinner. It was a really nice evening and wonderful visit.
The next day Randal and I spent toodling around Washington DC.
The White House
Various groups of tourist on a variety of tours.
Renwick Gallery http://americanart.si.edu/
We stopped in the Renwick Gallery which is part of the Smithsonian American Art Museum
The best part of the Smithsonian Museums is that they are free! We saw the “40 under 40” exhibit: sorry no photos were allowed of that exhibit. I think my favorite was the glass window blown up to look like interlocking bed pillows. You could take photos in the rest of the museum.
“40 under 40: Craft Futures features forty artists born since 1972, the year the Smithsonian American Art Museum’s contemporary craft and decorative arts program was established at its branch museum, the Renwick Gallery. The exhibition investigates evolving notions of craft within traditional media such as ceramics and metalwork, as well as in fields as varied as sculpture, industrial design, installation art, fashion design, sustainable manufacturing, and mathematics. The range of disciplines represented illustrates new avenues for the handmade in contemporary culture.
All of the artworks selected for display in the exhibition were created since Sept. 11, 2001. This new work reflects the changed world that exists today, which poses new challenges and considerations for artists. These 40 artists are united by philosophies for living differently in modern society with an emphasis on sustainability, a return to valuing the hand-made and what it means to live in a state of persistent conflict and unease.” http://americanart.si.edu/exhibitions/archive/2012/renwick40/
The United States Capitol Building in the distance….and flags along a street
I have no idea what it is but I love the architecture.
Same here with the round windows and “non-square” shapes.
From D.C. we drove back to McLean to visit with Eileen, George, Saadia, and Rambo. Eileen and I first met in our door room in the John Quincy Adams Tower in Southwest on the campus of UMass. Between us we knew every Chad Mitchell Trio song. We had some crazy times. Eileen, Sheila, my other roommate at UMass, and I could tell some stories. (It was Sheila who drove with me from Poughkeepsie, New York to Tallahassee Florida when I went off to library school. I had to say that because the article in the Roanoke Times when I retired said it was my sister and Sheila thought I’d forgotten. I didn’t forget, Joe Kennedy, the author, just got confused.” Anyway…..
Eileen and their adopted family member Saadia made dinner and we washed it down with a bit of booze. So the photo I took of Eileen and George is a bit blurry for several reasons. I did get one of Eileen the next day when we were all back to normal. I tried to get one of Saadia and Rambo but he licked her face as I snapped the photo so they’re both a blur. I hadn’t realized that I’d gotten such lousy photos until we got home so these will have to do. And I can’t blame the botched job on the camera, just the photographer!
Eileen bright eyed at her desk and Saadia giving Rambo a “dog cookie” from the jar.
Eileen retired from her government job and, rather than be bored, went to law school and now has her own law practice.