Day of Museums

One of the coolest things about Washington DC is that almost all the museums are free. I love this concept. It makes it easy to pop into a place, see some highlights and get back out into the sunshine.

I hit 4 museums that are part of the Smithsonian. My favorite was the Hirshhorn where they had a cool exhibit titled Suprasensorial that explored color, movement and light created for the human eye, not the cultured eye (I liked that!). I also thought the National Gallery of Art had some great works. I love the 19th century artists like Monet, Degas and van Gogh and they had a nice collection.

I paid to get into the Newseum and it was well worth it. This is an incredible collection of the key news items of the past 200 years and how the media play a role in shaping our world. They had a great exhibit on the changing media role in Presidential elections (including a video of Amy Poehler doing the Sarah Palin rap on SNL). The actual pieces of the Berlin Wall and the 911 exhibit are the most moving. I highly recommend this experience.

Seeing the Sights at Night

I did an open-air bus tour to see the monuments and memorials at night. Most of them are floodlit and take on a whole new feel in that light. As with any tour, it was somewhat irritating, but I'm glad I had the opportunity to see all of this so easily. Most impressive sights at night were the Jefferson Memorial reflecting off the water, the FDR and Lincoln Memorials and the new MLK Memorial.

Touring Around DC

The Leukemia Lymphoma Society sent me out to Washington DC to speak with legislators about upcoming cancer-related bills. I came out a couple days early to see the sights. I haven't been to DC since I was 16 and I have limited memories of the trip.

After a red-eye out of SF, I groggily wandered around in the general direction of the mall. I was thrilled when I came upon the Washington Monument and the White House. As I made my way around, I felt so impressed by this city. The gorgeous architecture and bright green lawns are so appealing and they've done a great job of making it easy to get around.

It's fabulous to see these historic sights in person. It really brings things into perspective. The National Archives building is absolutely gigantic and the White House is deceptively small. And I didn't realize that the Smithsonian is actually a set of many, many museums spread throughout the city. So much to discover!

One More Ski Weekend

We have our ski house til the end of April and the snow has held up pretty well so I'm up in Tahoe again for a final hurrah. Alpine was beautiful today. It was incredibly warm. The snow was a little sticky, but not terrible. A stop-off at the Chammy put an end to a great day.

Summer Means Biking

My friend Jackie emailed me yesterday to see about biking home from work. I have not been on my bike for about 6 months, but it seemed like a great idea to bike 20 miles after working all day. It was a gorgeous day for it and making the journey home made it feel like summer is officially here.

Tennis!

I have had tennis elbow for 4 months now and have finally found a kinesiologist who is making it better. I played with my friend Kris today and it felt so great to be back on the court. Fingers crossed that the elbow stays strong!

Linda Visits Marin

Linda was in SoCal for a training session for work and came up to SF for the weekend to hang out with me in Marin and spend a little time with her grand-kitty. We had a great time living the Larkspur life. We hit the trails, the local restaurants and the coffee shop throughout the weekend and we went up to Napa for the day to taste some wine and have lunch with Sarah. It was a delightful visit!