A Child Of Atom

This weekend Kid Flash and I took a brief trip to DC as a sort of post-Holiday, pre-return to school getaway. It was a great trip actually. We got a really decent last minute deal from one of the budget airfare websites, and we were off!

This was the lot directly beside our hotel (guess that explains why they were willing to let a room go so cheaply!). Doesn't that piece of equipment look awfully precarious ? It did to us. This was a DEEP pit, and I just knew that thing was going to tumble, especially on Friday when it was raining.

Yay! I managed to get a subway shot even though I was in a completely different town! The DC Subways were a bit confusing, no single ticket price every destination had a different price based on the distance traveled and you had to swipe going bot in and out of the stations. The most frustrating thing though was their tendency to turn the maps based on what seemed to be aesthetic reasons so the map were never oriented the same way from station to station. Frustrating.

Our first destination that morning was Eastern Market a flea/artists market in a neighborhood just beyond Capitol Hill. It was the first habitable area of the city we had seen since the hotel was by the convention center surrounded by office blocks. Cute neighborhood.

Our next destination was the National Gallery in the Mall area so we passed by the Capitol Building. It was beautiful weather, warm enough to walk most everywhere, and other than the drizzly rain Friday morning very dry.

In the mall we spotted the National Conservatory and went in to have a look at the pretty flowers. It was very well put together, one of the best of these type of things either of us had seen.

The view from the rotunda at the West building of the National Gallery.

The corresponding shot in the much newer (but far less interesting) East building. This was the first museum that we encountered this weekend that had any sort of a crowd in it at all. Unfortunately the crowd was all waiting to see the Edward Hopper exhibit which I wanted to see as well... oh, well. Next time.

In the National Gallery, an Andy Goldsworthy installation. I love this guy's stuff, and had never seen any of it in person.

After that we visited the National Aquarium, which I have to say was a bit disappointing. It was the only museum all weekend that we had to pay to enter, which is in pretty deep contrast to the fact that it was a) tiny, b) about a third of the exhibits were empty and c) about a third of the exhibits that DID have animals had signs saying that the animals on display didn't match the graphics around the display. Sad. Poor presentation.

A quick snack as we leave the Capitol area. One thing we had trouble with was finding decent places to eat. Lunches were usually at the museums, but dinner was a problem the entire time we were there. Saturday night we decided that we were going to try a different neighborhood, so after consulting the guidebooks we tried Dupont Circle since it was supposed to be an "artsy" neighborhood. The snack was to keep us happy until we arrived.

Another look at the DC Metro system. It was weird that every station was pretty much identical. I guess I am used to NYC where every station has it's own look, (or at least every neighborhood.)

Ah... the siren's call of hot donuts. (Which weren't actually hot, btw, but were still tasty.) Our last stop before returning to the hotel for the evening.

Hey... a bit of self promotion, if you are clicking over from Chad Darnell's blog (the founder an originator of this project) check out my CSI:Christmas post while you're here!