the weekend in brief

The purpose in going up to DC, other than visiting Stacy & Nate, of course, was to go to the Cherry Blossom Festival on the National Mall. I made it too the Mall, but the weather kind of threw a kink in the festival part of the plans. Earlier in the week it was quite windy and rainy in the DC area, which had knocked most of the blossoms off of the trees. If there were any left, I didn't bother to look because all day Saturday it poured and poured and poured some more. Now you might think that put a damper on the day, but it didn't.

Instead of doing the outdoor festival & monument thing, we went through a few of the Smithsonian museums. We started with the Hirshhorn Museum & Sculpture Garden, which has a huge collection of modern art. Now I'm not a huge fan of modern art, but right now the Hirshhorn as an amazing exhibit featuring the photography of Hiroshi Sugimoto. He's done these beautiful black and white photographs that play with perceptions of reality and time and space.

We attempted to go through the National Museum of Natural History, but the rain seemed to have forced every junior high kid in the DC area into that particular museum. It was an absolute zoo. We stayed just long enough for me to see the Hope Diamond, but then we high tailed out of there to find a quieter, less chaotic museum. Oh, and the Hope Diamond...so much smaller than I had envisioned.

We ended up at the National Museum of African Art. Three of the major exhibit spaces weren't open because they're in the process of putting in some new installations, so I want to go back after mid-June to see what they'll be displaying then. We did go into the Castle briefly and walk by the White House, but with all the rain, we didn't feel like spending any more time outside than we had to.

On Sunday afternoon, I met up with Bob at the Great Falls Park. We rambled around the park for a while and had a chance to catch up with what's going on in each others' lives. It was the perfect way to end the weekend.

It was a great weekend, and it ended all too quickly. While I loved going to the museums and seeing bits and pieces of Washington, the best part of the weekend was spending time catching up with good friends.