DC Scenes, 2019

Half our fall excursion, after Knoxville, was in DC, visiting daughter Rachel and her husband Will, and house- and pet-sitting during their various excursions. Though there is much of DC we have not seen, we don't regard ourselves as tourists, since we've seen most of it over the years. As in Knoxville, we stayed put, mostly, attending to various projects and interests, but occasionally we got out to see a few old favorites and a few new things. But mostly it was about staying put and working on our projects...and my seeing two wonderful friends of old from the humanities, Edie Manza and Esther Mackintosh.

Rachel and Will at Cantina Republic, the new neighborhood Tex-Mex down the
street

We spent one pleasant day at the National Gallery of Art--
elsewhere in this blog are posts and pix from numerous
previous visits--it's one of our favorites; this visit we did
the 18th and 19th century French paintings tour, which was
outstanding (NGA has lots of Fragonards and the largest
Watteau I have ever seen); most of the permanent collection
and of course the gift shoppe; the above reminds me to
mention we also saw several episodes of the Great British Bake-
off and that we gave Rachel a copy of Mary Berry's baking
cookbook for her birthday

We made it at last to the National Museum of African American History and
Culture--doing just the history part, the first three floors, was all we could
handle; the silence (and inherited guilt) on the first floor was reminiscent of
the Dokumentation Center in Berchtesgaden...

We'll be back sometime to focus on the cultural part...

Sic transit, Gloria...the glorious old Carnegie Library, now the Apple Store

Historic preservation

Jane Fonda's in there somewhere

Yes, let's... 

Scooters lying around everywhere, as in other large cities; this one decapitated

Rachel and Will were off on a road trip, so Vicki and I had a "quiet" Turkey
Day dinner, courtesy of Marie Callender; the Veuve Cliquot was a nice touch,
however (just kidding, Rachel)

Daphne, sweetest dog ever, dressed for a walk in the cold (the Poop Loop)

Desperately hungry house cats of DC...Peter, stupidest cat ever, lapping up
drippings in the dishwasher

"If it be now, ’tis not to come. If it be not to come, it will be now. If it be not now,
yet it will come—the readiness is all"--Bianca's thoughts as she awaits the
automatic cat-feeder's next dump

Holiday Fun In DC, 2

We both had projects to work on in DC--Vicki's photo album for Rachel and my incipient photo book on our treks--so we did not get out all that much. Nonetheless...

At the National Portrait Gallery

Part of the old building

At the National Museum of American History...Julia Child's kitchen

Art Deco car

Note innovative approach to child passenger safety

We watched several years' worth (for us) of TV during the
month, Victoria, The Crown, Final Table, Great British
Baking Show, Shetlands; also Game of Thrones and
Handmaid's Tale

Interestingly--some would say depressingly--the Museum's most popular
exhibit is Dorothy's ruby slippers

Another stop was the Smithsonian's Renwick Gallery, for
its No Spectators exhibition of art from Burning Man

Dome of its Temple creation

Notes and memorials

Among the symbols

Some fairly breath-taking constructions

No, we're not going to become Burners

Den of Iniquity

Flags at half mast for George H. W. Bush

Next time

As we were departing, I noticed the Trump jet parked on the tarmac at National...
for a fast get-away, I presume...

Holiday Fun In DC, 1

In mid-November we flew to DC for a month's stay with daughter Rachel and her husband Will. Will's parents, the Sehestedts, from Missoula, arrived for Thanksgiving, as did their daughter Jordan's in-laws--Jordan also lives in DC, with husband Mike--the Thompson's, from Milwaukee. It was a fun old-fashioned three-family holiday.

With the Sehestedts at a sports bar in Crystal City for the annual Brawl of the
Wild--the University of Montana vs. Montana State University football game;
Vicki and Rachel on the left, Jordan, Kathy, Mike, and Will on the right; alas,
after leading most of the game, UM lost; the table was equally divided between
UM and MSU alums

Myself, Vicki, and Rachel; I was rather more interested in the Ohio State/Maryland
game...an over-time nail-biter that Maryland eventually lost on a PAT attempt 

Thanksgiving at Jordan and Mike's; thanks and congrats Jordie!

At a Georgetown basketball game (Will's alma mater)

T-shirt swag cannon; alas, we were out of range

Among other things, Rachel scored tickets to Cirque du Soleil...on ice, no less

Socialite Rachel about to depart for a downtown gala

With life-long friends Harry and Norma Kingsbery, at the Hamilton

And with Vicki's cousin Sandee and her husband Rhett in
Bethesda

Us, there

Washington, DC To Missoula, MT

Rachel and Will drove us to Virginia to pick up the new truck on Sunday, October 5th, and we drove it gingerly, on secondary roads even, back to their house for packing and an afternoon departure. Destination: our old home town of Missoula, Montana, where our stuff is, and where a Bigfoot camper awaits mounting on the new truck. The highlights of the trip actually were visits with Sandy and Rhett in Frederick, MD, and, the next night, with Joey, Jodi, and Joseph, in Indianapolis. So much good food, drink, and conversation that I forgot to take any pix. Oh well. Our third night was in Charles City, IA, and our fourth was in Spearfish, SD. Over the years, I've traveled between Missoula and DC probably 30-40 times, entirely by air, except for 2003, when we moved Rachel to The Hill. As is our habit, we drove almost always by daylight and rarely approached the posted speed limits. Result: no incidents and 19.3 mpg for our new lightly-laden 6.4L/one-ton truck.

Not the Delaware Water Gap 

Passing through our old home town of Columbus, Ohio; in
the center is the State Office Tower, where I worked my first
permanent, full-time job, at the Ohio Board of Regents

Across the wide Mississippi, we entered Iowa and visited the
world's largest truck stop, on I-80

It was indeed large; this is just a portion of the retail showroom

Ditto

Ditto again; obviously, we were pretty impressed

Anemic blood moon over Charles City, IA

Pretty pedestrian mall in Mason City, IA; moving cash around
for our two big purchases this week required a stop in Mason
City, the last Bank of America branch on our route; little did
we know, but we now do, that Mason City is really River City,
of Music Man fame; Meredith Wilson was born and grew
up in Mason City, and many of the famous musical's characters
were drawn from his life here

Marian the Librarian poses in the city's central park; "Trouble,
right here in River City," is one of her favorite expressions

Driving past someone's sculpture garden astride I-90 in SD;
slightly reminiscent of Spain...

Outside an utterly classic Montana general store in Broadus

Only in Montana...

A double rainbow welcomes us back to western Montana

Drive time, the old-fashioned way

The aspens and cottonwoods were at their autumn peak in the
valleys; later I'll post a pic of the golden larches higher up
around Missoula

 

19.3 mpg over 2,400 highway miles (and mostly gaining
altitude and mostly with a head-wind); we were impressed with
the Ram's 6.4L gas engine, more than twice the displacement
of any engine we've had before, plenty of power yet surprisingly 
good fuel efficiency