I went over to the Botanic Gardens and a couple of museums.
The Botanic Gardens, a giant greenhouse and courtyard and neighboring garden, are all right next to the US Capitol. On the other side, a museum is under construction for the American Indian museum.
There are so many great plants and trees in the BG, not to mention cacti, that I certainly couldn't remember them all. I thought the best-smelling flower was the purple/ violet Porcia, while my biggest disappointment was that neither peppermint nor peppermint begonias smell like peppermint.
I always wanted to crack open an aloe plant, but of course would not harm a public garden's aloe plants... however, there was a coral aloe that someone had cracked before me... I dunno whether they accidentally cracked it or rudely broke it, but anyway I'm nothing if not a shameless opportunist and smeared some of the aloe on my hand. Strangely, it didn't smell like aloe vera gel from the store. It smelled like peanut butter almost.
It was so hot in DC today! November 1st, and it was hotter in the courtyard than it was in the greenhouse... well, most of the greenhouse. When you walk on the upper decks, heat rises and it was terribly sunny. In the tropical room, I'd say the mist-sprayers were running about 5/6 of the time.
They play audio of croaking frogs. Of course, I would like to see the waterway expanded and real frogs added, along with fish, turtles, maybe some otters n crocodiles.... anyway, there would be an obvious logistical problem just with the frogs going underfoot, so I'm just being ridiculous.
I'm sad to say they removed my favorite plane from the Air & Space Museum. When I was dating Erin, she asked me what my favorite thing in the museum was, and I said the Grumman Goose. Not there now. At least they still have the Boeing 247... I'm just beginning to realize how my favorite planes are medium-sized twin-propeller planes. DC3. Heinkel 111. B25, B26. Wellington. And so on...
Also sad, the somewhat-classy cafeteria of the A&SM has been replaced by a MacDonald's with some slim pickings from Boston Market.
The Hirshhorn Museum of modern art seems to be featuring a sculpture by a guy named Mueck of a giant, naked, Uncle Fester-looking guy... or maybe he's a giant, naked William Frawley. There's some good art there but, well, a lot of the sculpture is bland. There was one "installation" room that, unlike most art, you could touch. It was a room with printer/ copiers on the ceiling dropping paper. The floor was totally covered and there was whispery talking on an audio tape. People were lying around in the paper and tossing it around like snow.
http://www.usbg.gov
http://www.nasm.si.edu/
http://hirshhorn.si.edu/
The Botanic Gardens, a giant greenhouse and courtyard and neighboring garden, are all right next to the US Capitol. On the other side, a museum is under construction for the American Indian museum.
There are so many great plants and trees in the BG, not to mention cacti, that I certainly couldn't remember them all. I thought the best-smelling flower was the purple/ violet Porcia, while my biggest disappointment was that neither peppermint nor peppermint begonias smell like peppermint.
I always wanted to crack open an aloe plant, but of course would not harm a public garden's aloe plants... however, there was a coral aloe that someone had cracked before me... I dunno whether they accidentally cracked it or rudely broke it, but anyway I'm nothing if not a shameless opportunist and smeared some of the aloe on my hand. Strangely, it didn't smell like aloe vera gel from the store. It smelled like peanut butter almost.
It was so hot in DC today! November 1st, and it was hotter in the courtyard than it was in the greenhouse... well, most of the greenhouse. When you walk on the upper decks, heat rises and it was terribly sunny. In the tropical room, I'd say the mist-sprayers were running about 5/6 of the time.
They play audio of croaking frogs. Of course, I would like to see the waterway expanded and real frogs added, along with fish, turtles, maybe some otters n crocodiles.... anyway, there would be an obvious logistical problem just with the frogs going underfoot, so I'm just being ridiculous.
I'm sad to say they removed my favorite plane from the Air & Space Museum. When I was dating Erin, she asked me what my favorite thing in the museum was, and I said the Grumman Goose. Not there now. At least they still have the Boeing 247... I'm just beginning to realize how my favorite planes are medium-sized twin-propeller planes. DC3. Heinkel 111. B25, B26. Wellington. And so on...
Also sad, the somewhat-classy cafeteria of the A&SM has been replaced by a MacDonald's with some slim pickings from Boston Market.
The Hirshhorn Museum of modern art seems to be featuring a sculpture by a guy named Mueck of a giant, naked, Uncle Fester-looking guy... or maybe he's a giant, naked William Frawley. There's some good art there but, well, a lot of the sculpture is bland. There was one "installation" room that, unlike most art, you could touch. It was a room with printer/ copiers on the ceiling dropping paper. The floor was totally covered and there was whispery talking on an audio tape. People were lying around in the paper and tossing it around like snow.
http://www.usbg.gov
http://www.nasm.si.edu/
http://hirshhorn.si.edu/
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Go buy the Yeah Yeah Yeah's new CD. It rules my mundo right now!