Rainy Afternoon in D.C.

Bakery Paul

W and I went in to D.C. yesterday and visited the National Portrait Gallery, which is one of my favorite museums in D.C. There no crowds and the galleries are not huge, with many small intimate rooms of photographs and paintings. One of the permanent exhibits is The Presidents, all the famous portraits of the American Presidents. It is a very tranquil place and a good way to spend a rainy afternoon. Among other things,  we saw an exhibit called Capital Portraits and a small group of Reagan portraits and photos. I was especially happy to see this new acquisition of a poet and gardener that I like, Stanley Kunitz. He was a poet laureate of the U.S. and in his 90s wrote a sweet little book called The Wild Braid: A Poet Reflects on a Century in the Garden, about his seaside garden in Provincetown, MA.

"All I want to do is write poems and be in the garden." Stanley Kunitz

 A huge rain storm came through while we were there, making our visit to the new Bakery Paul (from Paris!) a little difficult, but we did eventually make it there (chocolate eclair, apple tarte, chocolate macarons!).

A few random shots of our rainy afternoon in D.C.

Chinatown

Storm approaching over old convention center site (Walt's office is across the street)

National Archives

Puddles on The Mall

My favorite pocket of a garden by the old Smithsonian Castle

Driving by the Jefferson Memorial