National Gallery of Art, Again

We visited the National Gallery late in 2013, but saw rather more of grand-daughter Penelope than the collection (see http://roadeveron.blogspot.com/2014/01/national-gallery-of-art.html). For our last day in DC this year, Vicki wanted to see at least one of the sights, and we settled on a more leisurely visit to the National Gallery. It's a museum of which Americans can be proud, particularly its Impressionist collection. Below are a variety of highlights, mostly by artists we've come especially to like. It made us a bit homesick for Europe (!), but we were ready now for a new American adventure to begin.

National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC

Mosaic from Roman Tunisia

Abbot Suger's chalice from Saint Denis

Giotto's Smirking Madonna and Hobbit

Van Eyck's Annunciation

Durer's Lot and His Daughters

Cranach's Crucifixion and Centurion

Tilman Riemenschneider's Bishop of Wurzburg

Bosch's Death of a Miser

Arcimboldo's Four Seasons in One Head (a
four-fer)

Titian's Dannae

A small Claude Lorrain Judgment of Paris

Watteau's Italian Comedians

From the impressive Degas/Cassatt special exhibit, the
American Mary Cassatt's Little Girl on a Blue Armchair

And last, a great archival exhibit on the
"Monuments Men" and the NGA

One of the Monuments Men with the rescued Velasquez
Infanta, which we've seen many times in Vienna, but never
fully appreciated...

DC Report

Largely because of Vicki's foot issue and the need let it heal, we did not get out much during our 6 weeks in DC. We were not idle, however. In addition to the hours upon hours of research about solar power for RVs, exterior storage arrangements, TV and wifi while on the road, and so on, we also painted and repainted Rachel and Will's downstairs suite...a large great room, galley, bedroom, and bathroom...hard work, especially all the woodwork and doors. But it's done, and we feel pretty good about having made some improvements. As usual, I went for a number of walks in the area, and we also went through the things we had previously stored at their house.

Then, just at the end of September, we got a call from the company that was building our new camper, a Provan Tiger, telling us of yet another delay, this time until early November. It was first scheduled for delivery in early August. Not all the delays were Provan's fault, but, by this time, we had waited long enough, were faced with missing the early autumn time we needed in Montana, and we therefore exercised our option of backing out of the deal with a full refund. No hard feelings--we enjoyed working with Mark Guild and really looked forward to joining the Tiger club--but too much time was being lost.

All this occasioned more priority-setting, planning, research, still more planning and research, and then shopping. Ultimately, we decided on a truck camper set-up, still wanting something that will go off-pavement and in all seasons...a 2014 Ram 3500 4WD crew cab with a 2008 Bigfoot camper mounted aboard. Interestingly, the Bigfoot was in Missoula, MT, precisely where we wanted to be in October (and September)...

The galley in the downstairs apartment became the painters'
studio for a couple weeks

Picking up our new truck in VA; the contrast between working
with honest, straightforward Provan and a car dealership could
not have been more complete

"America's Largest RV Show"

At length we figured out it merely bills itself as America's largest RV show (http://www.prvca.org/), but it was still pretty large, and we're glad we drove up to Chocolate City (Hershey, PA) and its Giant Centre to do the show. (Thanks, Rachel and Will, for use of the car, again). We've already made our decisions and commitments about our next camper, a Tiger Bengal TX 4x4 (http://www.tigervehicles.com/tiger-models/bengal/)--if only it would ever get built!--so we mainly looked at accessories, new ideas, and services for RVers at the show, trying to keep the impatience and frustration in check.

A look at the expanse of rigs...

The accessory sales were mostly inside the Giant Centre arena

Thus; I wonder if the home team is called the Chocolatiers?

My role in these expeditions is to document all
the new or otherwise interesting items, many of
them gadgets or gimmicks not sold in stores
nor seen on television; for further consideration

Thus; incredibly, we spent most of the day at
the show and bought nothing

We would have bought this cute camping high
chair, but P is too old for it now

I don't think think we'll be working for Amazon during the
winters, despite its being very fulfilling work (nyuk, nyuk,
nyuk); their table was generally shunned so far as I could see

Martin the Geico Gecko was there

Finally, a decent-sized flask (from a savvy new
company called Grass Haven; from CO, of course)

The only vehicle that really interested us was this Sportsmobile
all-terrain Fuso, a prototype of which we had seen a few years
ago in CA; obviously we're not into slide-outs, outdoor entertainment
centers, hook-ups, or KOAs, etc.; has a Mercedes 3-liter diesel and
gets 17mpg, we were told; just 22 feet long; $240k

Vicki examines the escape package...for digging yourself out
of mud, sand, snow, quicksand, lava...

One can go into a swag frenzy at these shows, but this time I
restrained myself and came back with merely a few "useful" items 

Washington, DC Out-Takes

We took the American/US Air red-eye from SFO to DCA (via JFK) on August 21st-22nd, moving our act from Middle California to the Middle Atlantic, to stay with daughter Rachel and her husband Will--in their mother-in-law suite--until our new camper is finished. The camper is a Tiger Adventure Vehicle, a Bengal TX, or somesuch, being built with modifications too numerous to detail, or even contemplate, near Columbia, SC. Our plan was for it to be ready for pick-up in mid-August, but, obviously, that didn't happen, and we are here in DC, comfortably but very impatiently awaiting news of the camper or even of the arrival of the Chevy 1-ton truck it will be built on. Too much walking in Paris resulted in Vicki's getting the Fascist Planter's disease, so she's staying off her feet, and we're staying pretty close to home, especially on those wonderful Washington days when the temps are in the upper 90s.

Sun rise on the east coast

The flight was OK until someone decided to change the route from JFK to DCA
but neglected to add fuel to the plane; fortunately, the crew figured it out (are the
margins that thin?) and after taxi-ing back to the terminal and adding another
thousand pounds of fuel and letting half a dozen passengers and their luggage off
in order to avoid missing connections, or re-routing them entirely, we finally took
off, arriving at DCA only a couple hours late

The near-north neighborhoods where Rachel lives are undergoing considerable
change, especially the building of high-rises; and in some cases, the removal of
smaller buildings to make way...

Thus

DC's old Carnegie library, pictured here because we have already spent
considerable time in DC and other libraries here...

DC libraries have their own police force; we suspect this is not because of
over-dues...

At the Library of Congress' 14th annual National Book Festival; I attended quite
a few of these in my working days; here NEA's Amy Stolls introduces the
contemporary fiction panel

Hitherto, and sometimes very unpleasantly, the national festival was held outdoors,
on the Mall; this year it was indoors, at the Washington Convention Center; fun for
me, not because I attended any of the scores of sessions, but because I got to see a
few old friends...John Cole of the LOC, Maggie Coval from Colorado, and Alice
Meister from Montana

Under heavy guard from the Junior League of DC, Billy Collins signs...

Outside the downtown library...you've heard of the doc-in-a-box... this is the
dentist-on-wheels

Labor Day Sunday we drove down to see Dave and Holly's Tardis,
a Tiger similar to what ours someday will be; in Chesapeake, VA

With the arrival of Vicki's sister Marie for a 4-day visit, we undertook a variety
of interesting American retail experiences; here, they are at the colossal two-story
American Girl store at Tyson's Corner; American Girl apparently is what you
graduate to right after the Disney/Princess phase, so I expect I'll be seeing a lot
more of these stores in the future

South By Southwest*

So on January 9^th our stay in DC came to an end. We had thought we might be able to do more sightseeing in a month's time, but family, grandparenting, Christmas, visits with relatives and friends, helping Rachel and Will with the new house, miserable cold weather (the heralded Arctic Vortex), and the inevitable planning/provisioning/packing, all conspired to limit our travel adventures in Washington. No regrets, however, as we had a great time with all the above. Except the Arctic Vortex.

I did manage to read a bit, Gottfried Wagner's Twilight of the Wagners—Rebecca gave me a copy of Stephen Fry's wonderful Wagner and Me DVD for Christmas—and both The Thin Man and The Maltese Falcon by Dashiell Hamett. And, oh yes, we saw quite a few movies, The Desolation of Smaug, in preparation for visiting NZ (and LA); and also Cast Away and Blue Lagoon in preparation for visiting to Fiji. Scenery, you know. So Vicki said. Anyhow, we'll be in DC again, no doubt, and can catch up then on the sightseeing.

January 9^th we jetted from National to Atlanta and then to the City of Angels (“I didn't find it to be that exactly, but I'll allow there are some nice folks there...”) and spent the night in the historic (seriously) LAX Travelodge...don't want to miss the next stage of our travels, the January 10^th flight from LA to Fiji and then New Zealand.

Catchya further on down the trail...in Christchurch. Bula bula!

*and AirTrans and Fiji Airways (formerly Air Pacific); the cabin crew on the SW flight was absolutely up to the old standard of hilarity "we're dimming the cabin lights now because we like to go really, really fast in the dark when we take off," etc.

National Gallery of Art, 2014

So one day a bunch of us rode the Metro over to the National Gallery of Art, on the Mall. For all the times I have visited DC over the years, I don't think I had ever been there before. It was to be a shorter, toddler-appropriate, visit, but it was enough to convince Vicki and me that a return visit was highly warranted. It is definitely world-class. As one would hope. So here are a few pix, mainly to remind us to go back.

Despite getting to ride the train, Penelope
let her lack of aesthetic enthusiasm be known
early, and often

The Dying Gaul, whom we last saw at the Capitoline

Panel from Duccio's  Maesta; or possibly something else

A very famous Botticelli, an Adoration; note the classical
as well as Christian themes; 1470

A Rogier von der Weyden portrait of a lady; there is an
exquisite van Eyck there too, which I missed: next time!

Rembrandt selfie #17,925

Obligatory Monet

Ditto

Van Gogh selfie

At this point, Rebecca had given Penelope her
phone, with its toddler drawing programs, and
we all noted that perhaps at this age Penelope
is more into the production rather than
consumption side of art

Jean Joseph Constant's The Favorite of the Emir, 1879, a
striking painting, anticipatory of some later developments
perhaps; Klimt?

Renoir's Odalisque; Renoir before he was Renoir?

"Are we done yet?"

In the impressive sculpture garden, Barry
Flanagan's Thinker on a Rock