INSIDE THE BELTWAY PART ONE…

With storms on our tail, we hang out a few days at the Dixie Caverns in Salem, VA.  When we first arrive our camp space is awash in gasoline fumes.  Seems the folks in the RV next to us have accidentally filled their fresh water tank with gasoline and they are attempting to siphon the fuel into the gas tank.  YIKES! We call the office and are promptly moved to the other end of the park, while park employees go to help these clueless travelers. It rains on and off, but the WIFI is decent so we just chill out and wait for the weather to improve.  As the weather begins to clear we move closer to Washington, DC and overnight in the North Fork Resort in Front Royal, VA.  The place is nothing to write home about, but it’s fine for an overnight.

Capitol

Then it’s on to our ultimate destination in the DC area, theCherry Hill Park in College Park, MD.  Cherry Hill is the closest RV Park to Washington, DC and they have a bus stop in the park where we can catch a bus to the Metro station and take a break from driving.  We plan to stay here one week.  After getting settled, we attend their daily meeting that explains the Metro system and purchase a couple of Metro Smart Cards.  We also book a night tour of the National Monuments for later that evening.

Jefferson Memorial

The tour is not really our style of travel and the tour guide pretty much sucks, but DC after sunset is stunning.  The monuments in shadows and light take on an almost mystical quality. We drive by the Capital, stop at the White House, the Jefferson and Lincoln Memorials, View the Washington Monument in the distance, stop at the Iwo Jima Memorial in Arlington, and drive past the Pentagon on our way back.  Lots of great photo ops, but light on information from our guide. 

The next morning armed with our Metro Smart Cards, we hop on the bus to the College Park Metro Station where we board the Green Line train and head into DC. The Metro drops us off a couple of blocks from the National Mall and so we begin the daily pattern of our exploration of the Smithsonian Museums. 

First stop the Smithsonian Natural History Museum.  The museum has decent exhibits, but frankly in our opinions the Museum of Man in San Diego is better organized with much of the same information.

The Last Conversation Piece
Juan Munoz

After spending the better part of the day with natural history, we stroll across the Mall to the Smithsonian Castle and then on to the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden. The Sculpture garden is wonderful with some really great pieces.  The building is a crisp cylinder open in the center and it raises expectations of the art within.  The top floor of the museum, which houses their permanent exhibit of contemporary art, is closed for renovation and we are disappointed. However, the second floor holds a special exhibit Damage Control: Art and Destruction since 1950, This ground-breaking exhibition explores destruction as part of the creative process through painting, sculpture, photography, film, installation, and performance pieces created by a diverse range of international artists post World War II, through the atomic age, and up to the present. It’s emotional, challenging and completely fascinating.

After our first day on the Mall we realize that in order to really explore the Smithsonian and the government buildings we will need to pace ourselves and only attempt one or two museums each day.  So we extend our stay another week.

Would you land on the moon
in this?

The Air and Space Museum is one of the most popular on the mall.  Under one roof we view the Wright brother’s, Spirit of St. Louis, Space Ship One, the Apollo 11 command module, the Hubble Space Telescope test vehicle, and hundreds of aircraft, spacecraft, missiles, rockets, and other flight-related artifacts.

American Indian
Museum

The American Indian Museum is home to a large and diverse collection of Native art and historical and cultural objects.  The exhibitions are designed in collaboration with Native communities from across North and South America.  The introductory film Who We Are, is moving and a must see for anyone visiting the museum.  On the lower level the Mitsitam Cafe features a Native-inspired menu.  A snack seems like a good idea so we grab some chips and guacamole for a snack.  Stale chips and bland guac… when will we learn? Mexican food east of the Mississippi never fails to disappoint…

The National Gallery of Art is not part of the Smithsonian.  It is, as aptly named, our national art gallery and is equal to the other great national galleries worldwide.  It takes us two full days and a few more hours to explore the museum. (And that’s because the East Building is closed for renovations and we can only tour the atrium styled lobby.)  In addition to the outstanding permanent collections we are fortunate to be able to view some absolutely spectacular special exhibits… where to start…

Winogrand

Garry Winogrand (1928 –1984) was a New Yorker who traveled around the United States during the postwar decades. His legacy is a sweeping black and white portrait of American life focused mainly on the middle class. In these photos we see a country that glitters with possibility but threatens to spin out of control and each picture exposes some deep current in American culture. The exhibit ends with an interview with Gary Winogrand filmed at Rice University in 1977, which enhances our appreciation of the artist.

Modern German Prints and Drawings from the Kainen Collection:  This exhibition presents more than one hundred German drawings, prints, and watercolors from 1910 to 1930 by Ernst Ludwig Kirchner and others in his circle. Some of the finest examples of expressionism, a movement that rejected the academic pursuit of timeless, idealized beauty in favor of creating dynamic art that reflected life and experience in the modern world. Kirchner’s art leading up to his suicide in 1938 is disturbing and emotionally exhausting.

Looking Out, Looking In

Andrew Wyeth: Looking Out, Looking In gathers together — for the first time — a
 select group of Wyeth’s images of windows. The exhibition begins with Wind from the Sea (part of the National Gallery’s permanent collection) and includes images that reflect his extended study of windows. 

Cassatt

Degas/Cassatt.  Mary Cassatt, first met Edgar Degas in 1877 when he invited her to participate with the impressionists at their next exhibition. Over the next decade, the two artists collaborated and challenged each other to experiment. This collection contains some of the finest works that these two produced during this time. It is thrilling to see such a wonderful collection displayed.

Tucked away in a small screening room the film, “Street” by Cheryl Dunn loops continuously through the day. This slow motion documentary filmed from two vehicles driving through the city captures New Yorkers as they go to and fro.  We planned to just watch part of the film, but the voyeuristic fascination is too compelling and we stay for the entire movie.

Da Vinci

The permanent collection displays works by all the greats.  We are especially thrilled to see some wonderful works by Van Gogh, Rembrandt, Manet, Monet, Cezanne, Pollack and others. Da Vinci’s portrait of Ginevra de’ Benci is the only painting by Da Vinci permanently exhibited in the United States.

Trippy Tunnel

Connected to the main gallery building by an underground tunnel, the east building is mostly closed for renovations but we are able to tour the sculptures in the atrium.  The building itself is a work of art and we spend the better part of a day photographing the building and the stunning sculptures.

And so ends week one in our nations capitol…