{"id":3455,"date":"2018-04-12T00:20:07","date_gmt":"2018-04-12T00:20:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/marigoldonline.net\/?p=3455"},"modified":"2018-04-12T00:20:07","modified_gmt":"2018-04-12T00:20:07","slug":"cherry-blossom-time","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/marigoldonline.net\/?p=3455","title":{"rendered":"Cherry Blossom Time"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Having navigated subways in Hong Kong, Paris, London, and Milan and living in New York City where, despite its many problems, the subway is a way of life, I found the Washington DC metro a complicated, aggravating system. \u00a0The so-called Smartrip system requires passengers to deal with banks of machines, (some not-functioning; others that won\u2019t accept cash, others anti-credit cards\u2014and so forth.) Step up\u00a0 to buy a card or add value and you’re confronted with a series of plusses and minuses. Need help?\u00a0 There just might be a lone employee trying to deal with many frustrated people.\u00a0 Does anyone mention you need to hold onto your card to exit the turnstiles upon departure? Or that certain trips cost more than others? Nope on both counts.\u00a0 Two Ivy college grads managed to get around but it wasn’t easy. And between us the machines gobbled about seven dollars\u2014overall small potatoes but at the time irritating.<\/p>\n

By accident, we picked prime cherry blossom time to visit DC. The trees are truly lovely but it\u2019s an ultra-busy\u00a0 period — people with kids, triple strollers, wheelchairs etc.\u00a0 (Perhaps we aren’t so smart although none of our DC friends said “rethink your timing.”)<\/p>\n

Day one was spent at the (drum roll) National Museum of African American History & Culture.\u00a0 It\u2019s sensory overload with lots to see and hear and many people trying to pass through small, lower level spaces (read bottlenecks.) \u00a0At one point we entered a huge elevator where the operator announced that going forward we\u2019d walk over a mile. No problem for us but might they have made the announcement earlier on so people could opt out? The museum\u2019s exterior is veiled in bronze-colored cast-aluminum lattice work,<\/p>\n

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cladding on exterior of museum<\/p><\/div>\n

apparently evocative of iron work once done by enslaved craftsmen; from the inside it lends a sense of foreboding which I bet wasn\u2019t the intention. Overall, I\u2019d give this venue an A for effort and C- for achievement.<\/p>\n

On the flip side, viewing the Obama portraits was easier than anticipated. Barak\u2019s picture hangs with other presidents while Michelle is in<\/p>\n

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Michelle Obama–beautiful but not much resemblance<\/p><\/div>\n

another room off to one side with interestingly diverse and seemingly random company. Other areas of the National Portrait Gallery were relatively uncrowded including a section with portraits of Marlene Dietrich at her androgynous best.\u00a0 The National Gallery of Art had a large exhibit devoted to work of \u201coutliers\u201d \u2013 artists who were self-taught or primitive or otherwise outside the mainstream who nevertheless played an important role in the history of modern art, a beautiful, bright show. The National Gallery is also currently showing works by photographer Sally Mann emphasizing her Southern roots and a beautifully curated show of sixty portraits by Cezanne drawn from other collections worldwide, some never seen in the US before.<\/p>\n

Besides a lot of walking, the weekend encompassed catching up with DC friends. Let\u2019s leave the orange ogre out of it. Go Stormy. Bye Paul.<\/p>\n

We ate these Salted Oatmeal Cookies for dessert at lunch one day at Teaism,, a restaurant chain,\u00a0 along with a DC pal. The 2007 recipe appeared in The Washington Post.\u00a0 <\/em>Recipe makes 18 cookies which will be gone in no time.<\/p>\n

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