Will we have another Lemonade trip or will our elected officials figure out how to run our government? We leave tomorrow morning for DC and hope to take the Civil War tour that we are looking forward to! If the national parks do not open, the tour will definitely be compromised, if it happens at all! It is a Tauck tour and they are very resourceful. Time will tell! In the meantime there are many things to do in DC without going to the Mall or the Smithsonian. Fortunately we have been there several times, but it is very sad to see it closed. It is even more sad to see our government at such an impasse! Three years ago we were in DC for a week after being stopped from crossing the ocean to Europe because of the Icelandic volcano. We had a very good and successful week there and called it our Lemonade trip. The following year we took our trip to Holland and Belgium, a Tauck cruise. Now will we have Lemonade Too? (October 6)
Our flight was fairly uneventful other than departure delayed an hour after we were in the plane, upon arrival Tauck's chauffered service was not there and said we had been cancelled, and AA broke the handle that pulls out to roll my suitcase. The rain had stopped and it was lovely driving into DC as we took a cab to the beautiful Mayflower Renaissance and enjoyed a glass of wine and light supper in the executive lounge.
Tuesday we take a cab to Hillwood Estate and Museum to see the home of Marjorie Merriweather Post.
The dining room was my favorite with its beautiful table made in Florence. Our hostess was known for living artfully. This table was actually in her Florida home but brought here later. She was the only heir to the Post Cereal fortune. With her second husband, E.F. Hutton, they created General Foods. She often served the latest flavors of Jello. They were the parents of well-known actress Dina Merrill.
Marjorie's 3rd husband was Joseph Davies, ambassador to Russia in the 1930's. While there she developed a love of Russian art, bought many items including Faberge items, silver chalices that were so black she had no idea they were silver and this chest which had the portraits of Nicholas Ii and Alexandra, but were removed before delivery.....as the Bolsheviks did not want any pictures of the royalty to be taken out of the country.
A scaled model of Marjorie's yacht, the Sea Cloud, sits in the library. She did not have a son to give to the World War II effort, but loaned her yacht which was used to look for German submarines near the coast of England. Much later she sold the yacht as the registry taxes had become too expensive to keep. She said that others registered their yachts in other countries to avoid the high fees, but she was too proud of her American heritage to do that.
The gardens were beautiful, rose garden, friendship garden, orchids in the greenhouse and above shows us in the Japanese style garden.
The back side of the house. From this porch you can see the top of the Washington Monument, maybe five mikes away. The home is in a beautiful wooded residential area northwest of downtown Washington.
Back to our hotel where we played Mexican Gin and enjoyed a light supper in the executive lounge. The hotel engineer has been able to pull out the handle of my suitcase, but it does not retract. Perhaps it will work until we get home or do I want to spend time here buying a new suitcase?
Our tour is a go! We just received an email with a revised itinerary. The trip is compromised by the government shutdown, but Tauck is doing its best to create a memorable journey about the Civil War.
Wednesday, October 9, the weather is changing, rain predicted about 4:00, but has not started by 5:00 other than a few sprinkles. Actually is predicted the rest of the week, so we decide to go to the Phillips Collection today as it is a nice walk north of our hotel. On the way we see a luggage repair shop, but they are overwhelmed with broken handles, etc. and could not look at mine until next week...too late for us. The Phillips Collection includes modern art from the Impressionists on...it is housed in the Phillips home plus there is an extension that was added. Phillips father made his money in steel.
The collection includes works by Picasso, Braque, Rothko, Degas, Bonnard, Klee, Kandinsky, Feininger, O'Keefe, Diebenkorn et al. Also Repentant St. Peter by El Greco and another Repentant St. Peter by Goya. There is a famous Renoir, Luncheon of the Boating Party, pictured below.
Interesting series on Migration portrays that great migration of African Americans from the South to the North after World War I, created by Jacob Lawrence in the 1940s. Ties in with our upcoming tour on The Civil War.
We like this Picasso, Girl with a Green Hat.
Also like this Diebenkorn. He was born in Portland, Oregon, in 1922, and died in Berkeley. Painting shows the interior with a view of the ocean.
The Open Window by Pierre Bonard
After lunch in their cafe, we walk back down to Dupont Circle then down Connecticut Avenue and over to the National Geographic Museum behind our hotel. They had a wall with all the covers of their magazines. Bob found the one for the month he was born. In those years, the covers showed a table of contents of the articles, not the striking photos of later years. Back to our hotel, rest and later to the lounge where I am writing the blog, then cards, wine, hors d'oeuvres and supper, ravioli tonight.
Thursday, October 10... Metro to Vienna! After walking a couple blocks in the rain, we entered the Metro station and mastered, with the help of the station attendant, the purchase of smart cards and took the metro to Vienna...Virginia, that is, to visit my cousins! Half an hour ride....it was very nice and pleasant! My cousins met us, took us to their beautiful home where we visited and caught up from our visit here three years ago during our first Lemonade Trip. They took us to lunch at the Maplewood Grill, excellent, where most of us had the Black Angus hamburgers...delicious! After four or five hours of visiting, they took us back to the Metro Station, letting us off in the Kiss and Ride drive through...we kissed them goodbye and had a pleasant ride back to DC and a two block walk to our hotel. It had stopped raining in Vienna, but there was still a light rain in the city.
A delightful day, BUT when I read my email, we learned that our Civil War tour was CANCELLED. We are very disappointed as we had looked forward and planned for this trip for a year. So it is going to be Lemonade Too, after all! And now we are starting to figure out our options...tune in tomorrow! Supper in the lounge tonight is falafels, reminiscent of our trip to Israel last April.
Liz's cousins in Vienna...
October 11, traditionally Columbus Day...we walk down Connecticut Avenue to 17th Avenue and on down to the Corcoran Gallery. It is raining, but not bad. We walk by the beautiful and interesting Renwick Gallery building, Second Empire style created 1859-74. It is closed as it is part of the Smithsonian showcasing crafts and decorative arta. This building will be renovated and will not open until 1916. Pictured below.
As we cross the street we see another architecturally onteresting building, the Eisenhower Executove Office Building. Now this does not seem Iike a building erected in the 1950's! It was built between 1871-88. It houses some of the White House Staff. Pictured below.
Many others we liked also! Including Remington's Coming thru the Rye!
And Bierstadt's The Last Buffalo. (Above)
After lunch at their cafe, we walked two blocks more to the DAR Library amd spent about an hour looking for ancestors...no major breakthroughs!
Liz bought note cards to write thank you letters to our DAR chapter speakers. Admired the beautiful new glass ceiling.
We walked the eight blocks back to the hotel, light rain. Big news when we returned!
The lemonade is gettimg sweeter!
We are on the tour for October 19.....
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