Summer Colors

I'm still catching up from earlier this year.  It's fun to look through photos and remember the summer without reliving the heat.

The Corcoran Gallery of Art was the oldest and largest non-federal art museum in DC.   It was right around the corner from my freshmen dorm and I loved being in a city where I lived in such proximity to art.  It was a big change from small town USA.  The museum was sold this past year to GWU and the National Art Gallery and the institution will no longer be the same.  I made an effort to visit before it closed and I had forgotten the wealth that was in their permanent collection.  I'm curious to see how it will look in the future.

I still contend that the best tacos in DC are in Northern Virginia at Taco Bamba.  I have yet to be proven wrong.

So happy that Osteria Morini opened in DC.  I went with Jen for brunch and we both left very happy.

Restaurant week in August - I had forgotten about this but I did really like the food.  I'm craving the food from summer now that I have months until I'll eat corn and fava beans again.

Bishop Allen always makes me happy.  They released a new album earlier this year.  Such good indie pop music.

My Childhood Favorites

And they are still my favorites in so many ways.  I walked to the National Museum of American History on one of the busiest days of the year as it was the Saturday of the Cherry Tree festival.  I've been wanting to go since I returned to DC and for some reason I just had to go that day.

I stopped for breakfast at the Red Apron Butcher and was very happy to see women dressed up like super heroes.

I wanted to only see two exhibits - the Muppets and Julia Child's kitchen.  It makes me laugh how excited I was to see the Muppets but watching The Muppet Show as a child really shaped my sense of humor.  It's a very funny show and they represent laughter and happiness to me.

It made me so very happy to see both of them. And also the awesome turquoise in Julia's kitchen.

I saw a few other cool items like President Lincoln's actual hat.

And a Sunstone from the original Latter-Day Saint Temple in Nauvoo, IL.

As soon as I saw these items, I ran away from the crowds.

Walking in Sunshine

I was in NYC during one of the most gorgeous weeks.  It was cool enough to wear a coat but sunny enough to still want to walk for miles throughout the city. 

I said goodbye to Jess on Monday and traveled to The Armory Show at the New York Historical Society.  It had opened that weekend and I was so happy that it was not crowded.  I've heard so much about the influence of the Armory show for years and I was excited to see it with 100 of the works originally shown in 1913.  This was the exhibit that introduced so many Americans to what the European and American artists were doing in Europe, including van Gogh, Picasso, Duchamp, Degas, Matisse, and Rodin.  It's incredible to think of a time when "Nude Descending a Staircase" by Duchamp was controversial.  I wanted to see that emotion of controversy still happening 100 years after the fact but now these works are popular and understood.  I wish I could travel back to the actual time and really hear people talking about the exhibit with shock and awe.

I walked through the park to get to the MOMA.  I explored unknown paths and found my way to Bethesda Fountain.  None of my photos do the place justice but I liked seeing the mom trying to pose her son in the below photo.

I made it to the MOMA before it closed and headed straight to the Magritte exhibit.  I forgot how much I like his paintings.  I went to an exhibit of his works at the SFMOMA in 2000 but it was a fuller retrospective whereas this one covers a set number of his working years.   I enjoyed the art more in the later years and really liked the below piece "The Lovers".  It's worth working through the crowds to see it.

I walked through more of the city the next day when I met up with Ty for lunch including Washington Square Park.  This image still makes me really happy.  I was even happier when people kept asking Ty to take their photos because they unknowingly got a professional photographer to do it for them.  And the people watching in this area is incomparable.  We saw it all including a woman who called for the squirrels with strange verbal noises, used their names and fed them food.  She confidently told all of us in the area that she was a witch.  I wish we had more of these personalities in DC but this is not their environment.

Hillwood Estate

This is another place that has taken me far too long to visit in DC.  I actually don't know if when I found out it even existed.  It's the beautiful home of Marjorie Merriweather Post, a woman who was born into a fortune and married into fortunes.  She bought this home in 1955 and decided it would a museum.  I always wonder how comfortable people can be in this museum-type of houses but maybe they are just born into it.

It's a self guided tour and there is a lot to read about some of the art but I enjoyed just wandering and looking.

This kitchen screams 1950s with the avocado accents.

I couldn't get any closer to take this photo but I loved his pose.  It's a rich man's pose.

Marjorie really loved pink as evident from her bathroom.  The bath mat deserved special attention.

Philip Johnson in DC

I found out about The Kreeger Museum when I was visiting the Glass House a couple of years ago with Mer and Trish.  I put it on the list of to dos in DC and I can't believe that I didn't know about it for all the years that I lived here.

It's a small museum and the collection has some nice paintings by Monet and Picasso.  I really liked the sculpture collection though which included pieces from Moore and Arp.

A Perfect Birthday

This month has flown by.  I don't know why I haven't been in the mood to blog but it's been a nice time to hibernate.  Spring finally arrived in DC yesterday which makes me so happy.  I can't wait for the cherry blossoms to bloom in the coming days.

This post though is about my time in NYC when I had a pretty to close to perfect birthday.  I did all the things that I love to do.

I don't remember ever having a snowy birthday but I loved it.  It didn't really snow in DC this winter and I missed it.  I wasn't wear the right shoes which made me walk very carefully as I wasn't in a mood to fall but I still loved having snow falling on my head all day.

I headed straight to Buvette to drink the hot chocolate and eat a poached egg with lentils.  This place is a given whenever I'm in NYC.

And I stopped by Sockerbit right around the corner for an assortment of licorice, chocolate and sour candies.

I traveled up to the Upper East Side to the Met to see Matisse and also the Impressionism, Fashion and Modernity exhibit.  I had no idea how impressed I would be with seeing examples of or sometimes the actual clothing in the paintings.

I love Giacometti and I wasn't allowed to take photos in the other exhibits.

I ate one of my birthday treats at the Dominique Ansel Bakery in Soho.  It involves lots of caramel and hazelnut.

I went shopping in Soho and stopped at the Steven Alan shop in Tribeca which I love so much.  Across the street is this great market with flowers, nunu chocolates, ice cream, a butcher and a bar/restaurant.  I stopped in for a quick snack and found this ice cream which is my new favorite.

And then I traveled to Queens to eat at Sripraphai with people I love.  Trish knows what I love with her gift.

I dream of this food when people ask me what is good Thai in DC.