Hurray! Museums.

We knew you were wondering when we would visit a museum. We have not been museum slackers.  We just have been busy with Bennett, oh, and his parents, too.  We made up for the lack of museum entries by visiting three today.  Each had fabulous photographic exhibits.

Starting at the National Geographic, “Women of Valor” is an exhibit featuring the work of women  staff photographers who have had feature stories in their magazine.  These were poignant and somewhat painful photo stories of child brides, slavery, and poverty.  Though we could take photos, we chose to share two of lesser pain though excellent.

At least we thought this photo was lovely.  The caption said editor Susan Welchman rejected  it because it failed to tell a story.

The  by photography by Amy Toensing did tell a story of two brothers, fishermen from Maine, who impacted their community over many years.  The pictures on the walls over their beds showed the men in earlier and happier years.

The wall of magazine covers implies that the photo covers began in 1960.  Do any of you remember the magazine without a photo cover?

This drone is the latest in photojournalism equipment even though it uses a Canon camera.  The camera pack in the foreground was put on a penguin to follow him in his underwater trips to catch fish.

 The Natural History Museum had their annual Nature’s Best Photography.  This shot seemed more like a painting than a photo.

This picture is by a Hawaiian photographer our daughter Cheryl helped discover.  He gave her a small version of the photo as a thank you gift for her support in showing his art.  It was honored as Nature Photograph of the year.

Anna Lee became enamored of the work of Yossef Karsh over fifty years ago.  A brief retrospective of his work is on display at American Art.

This photo of Hemingway is in Anna Lee’s book of Karsh’s portraits as are photos of Salk, Churchill and other luminaries.  

This may not be a museum but it does provide a unique experience for another sense, taste.  Hill Country Restaurant was a great place for Texas BBQ near the National Mall.

But the best thing we did all day and for the past eight days is enjoy Bennett.  Reading one of Uncle Jeff’s favorite childhood books was an emotional treat.

Though we are returning home tomorrow, we look forward to a return visit real soon.

Snowy DC

Upon our arrival at the baggage claim area of BWI Airport, we were greeted by the most adorable little boy running into our arms. We thank Skype for enabling our grandson Bennett to recognize us during our separations. What also greeted us was a major snowstorm that dropped over a foot of snow in DC keeping most people indoors. For us it was family time, games, eating and talking to and over each other. This after Dave took care of the steps and sidewalks.

Bennett and his friend Luke performed a concert for us on Jerry’s mother’s piano. It was in the atonal style.

We carried with us a piece of artwork for Bennett. He has been so fortunate to receive wonderful gifts handmade by talented friends. His latest acquisition is a special quilt resplendent with a zoo of animals. Made by Rochelle and supervised by Don, this quilt now hangs on display over Bennett’s bed but first he identified the animals. There may be another hanging spot for the quilt later this year. Follow the blog in May to see where it may go.

Jerry and Anna Lee tore themselves away from the boy for an evening to go to the Arena Stage for a one-man performance in tribute to Paul Robeson. The Tallest Tree in the Forest was an excellent play about this great singer whose voice, both theatrical and political, is fading from memory. Though Daniel Beaty’s voice was not as resonant as Robeson’s, his performance was outstanding. He performed various roles including Robeson’s slave-born father, Robeson’s wife Eslanda, J. Edgar Hoover and several critics. This is a play we would recommend, especially to students who so need to learn the history of America and Blacks in the early 20th century.

To celebrate Valentine’s Day, we went to the Botanical Garden for a concert of romantic music featuring tunes about the birds and the bees. The concert was not very good but Bennett has an eye for older women and did manage to pick up a lovely 23-month-old girl and take her on a tour of some flowers.

The display on scents of nature in our food and cosmetics was enhanced by these giant metal plants.

Cheryl was our day after Valentine’s Day gift xx years ago. We started her birthday celebration with some great DC dim sum. Continuing the eating theme we celebrated her birthday dinner at Domku, a Slavic restaurant in their neighborhood.