Good night, Chinatown

This morning JD got up in the dark and went to work.  Me, I stayed in bed.  I finally woke up after 8 and toddled downstairs for a leisurely breakfast of leftover blueberry pancakes.  I couldn't see any reason to wake Lori, so I left her to wake up on her own.  And she eventually wandered downstairs too.

Then we did something that I almost never do:  we went into the city to go to museums.  First we went to the Smithsonian's Museum of the American Indian, which was pretty awesome I must say.  Especially once we figured out where the exhibits were.  There were exhibits on modern American Indians, but also on indigenous peoples throughout the world.  Also, the "A Song for Horse Nation" exhibit is showing now.  There's a movie but it wasn't playing today, sadly.  Still, the exhibit was neat.  It talks about the history of the horse in American Indian culture, what changes the horse brought, and what they're doing now.  The Nez Perce are breeding a new Nez Perce horse from Akhal Tekes and Appaloosas.  There was a video playing which showed some of them, and they are some *nice* looking horses.  Very, very nice horses.  Also I was impressed that the guy on the video was in the "stallion field" - which was just a bunch of stallions hanging out together.  And they were no more nippy or fierce than your average band of geldings.  I know some breeds are managed this way, but I can't say that I've ever dealt with stallions in a group.  It's uncommon near me.

We thought it looked like a castle.

You know, I've lost track of what the hell this is, but it's pretty fantastic.

I'm pretty sure this is meaningful

Indians for the MTV generation

HORSIES!

This told a whole big story.  I can't tell you the story.  But I can tell you that all those rectangular hoofprints in a row indicates travel.

Loved this horsehead saddle.

Hello hello hello hello

Metro is so not sexy

I was starting to flag and Lori was a bit too, so we headed out to lunch.  We went to "Meatballs", a new restaurant in Chinatown.  You get your choice of meatballs (regular, lamb, crab, chicken, or vegetarian,) your choice of base (salad, grinder, pasta, minis (i.e. two small slices of french bread) or creamy polenta,) a choice of several sauces, "extras" of which I don't remember much except for fritos, and a side.  I got chicken balls on polenta with tandoori sauce and spinach cooked with garlic.  It was *fantastic*.  The price is reasonable for DC food, and the portions were pretty huge. I couldn't finish mine.  I hope the place stays open.  It deserves to.  They need more seating, though.

I can't tell if this really conveys how appetizing my meal was.  Just looking at it is making me a wee bit hungry again.  Also?  Thank you, restaurant industry, for starting to serve sauteed spinach everywhere.  I love you.

BALLS!  (The word meat is in tiny letters just above it.)

Lori's all happy and pretty!  Also, she loves spinach.

Refreshed and revived, we walked over to the National Portrait Gallery, which turns out to share a building with the National American Art Museum.  This led to some confusion, as we thought we were heading into portraits and we saw.. it's hard to describe.  Not portraits, though.  At any rate, we made it through two levels of the building before we were entirely pooped.  Both of us were getting kind of achy.  Walking all day is fine, but standing around kind of kills.  So I have no idea what the third floor is like.  I will say that my very favorite part of the museum was the Black List - a collection of photographic portraits of famous or important black people.  They were just really good portraits.  Maybe I liked them more because they're of people I've heard of, in the news?  Or maybe it was just really good photography.  Either way, I recommend seeing the exhibit.

Elvis is everywhere

Yeah, I don't know either.

Proof that obesity is not a modern problem.

You gotta love a military man.

Very fine stained glass.

JD got in touch and we decided to meet in Chinatown for dinner.  Lori and I headed outside, and immediately found a parade!  Or so we thought.  It turned out to be a brass band and a police car blocking traffic with its lights on.  I was a little disappointed that it wasn't an actual parade, but I was happy to sit on the museum steps and enjoy the brass band for a while.

You'll have to trust me, there's a brass band in this picture.

The temperature started to drop so I persuaded Lori to go to Fadó, an Irish bar.  (It didn't take much persuasion.)  We had appetizers and beer while waiting for JD to arrive.  After that we weren't much in the mood for an entree, but appetizers plus dessert seemed like a good idea.  :)

Lori is getting dubious of all this picture taking

Probably you would rather see the food.  Or the awesome bar.  Sorry.

It was a long day of tromping around in the city, but the weather couldn't have been better and it was great to get to see new museums.  Before we went I had a whole bunch of things I wanted to see (like the Botanical Gardens next door to the American Indian museum, and the National Building Museum) but I think I'm museumed out for a little while now.  Maybe next time I'll plan to go only for two or three hours instead of a whole day.  Shew.

Good night, Chinatown.