Artistic Endeavor

After touring the U.S. Capitol Building, we made our way around the grounds to the west side of the building. We happened upon a quiet little garden that, I learned from Google Maps, is called Summerhouse. It's hardly hidden -- besides being on the map, a sidewalk takes you straight to it. But there was no one else inside when we arrived, and we stopped for a short rest in unusual solitude, compared to the frenetic pace of the day so far.

We then walked by a few smaller monuments near the Capitol, including the horse-mounted Ulysses S. Grant, before eventually renting scooters once more to take us to the American Art Museum.

Spread across three sprawling floors, this part of the Smithsonian isn't on the National Mall... though that, plus the later afternoon hours, meant it was far less crowded than you might expect. We wandered for hours until tired feet finally caught up with us, but we saw lots of interesting pieces in that time. A personal favorite of mine was a collection of fancy-looking pieces that had been done up in aluminum foil by artist James Hampton. The same "found objects" section of the museum had statues made of bottlecaps, unusual wind chimes made of random trash, and more. I was also taken by Alexis Rockman's 40-foot wide canvas titled "Manifest Destiny," a disturbing apocalyptic hellscape.

The museum also included portraits throughout, including one by Joseph Silfred Duplessis that many people would recognize: the painting of Benjamin Franklin is the basis of his image on the $100 bill. Plus interesting landscapes from Yellowstone, painted in places I'd personally visited (albeit created at a time before the place was even designated a National Park). And so very much more.

We grabbed dinner at Founding Farmers Distillery, a restaurant that not only made its own spirits, but apparently its own everything. I tend to go for seafood when closer to the ocean (with an expectation of it tasting better than I can get in Colorado), and that worked well for me on this occasion.

And finally, once the sun fell and a very pleasant evening set in, we found a rooftop bar (it seems many hotels in D.C. have one) to just relax in the slight breeze and sit -- blessedly, sit -- a spell before turning in for the evening. Our trip was half complete.