Two days in Seattle

And they say that Melbourne weather is changeable! Seattle does it with more intensity. Yesterday was warm and sunny. Today is colder than it will be when we get home on Thursday. And wet too.

But it was great to see Sean who is on a minimalist kick. Jo helped by dropping one of his plates. Geoff and Sally drove down from Blaine to stay overnight and drive us further south to the airport. Considering pm here.

Their neighbours from Mukilteo days, Val and Alan Wegerman came to breakfast. She has just retired (95% as she still has a student or two to supervise) so they were in the mood to celebrate.

Two days in DC

Our hotel is in the embassy of small countries area of DuPont Circle. It has been interesting walking back and forth to the Metro.

row houses/embassies

Dupont Circle

Yesterday we had lunch in a French bistro in Kensington with Janet Stollnitz and Ruth Blau. And dinner in a Spanish place in Ballston with Vim and Charles Maguire.

Ruth and Janet

Theodore Duret and his cat by Edouard Vuillard 

Today we caught up, with the help of mobile phone talks, with Lois Dean at the Cezanne portraits exhibition at the Nat Gallery. Our way was impeded by a huge mass of bar-b-que enthusiasts. 

Lois and Jo

Tonight we had a very good Indian meal locally.

Tomorrow morning we fly to Seattle. Thanks to an email from United we will only have to be at the airport 45mins before the flight. . . not the 2hours earlier that Jo had assumed. It makes a difference for an 8:30 flight from an aiport an hour’s drive away!

Back from the Shenandoah

We had a peaceful time in the valley but it was not without its excitements.

Jo’s TomTom took us straight to the house so that we didn’t have to rely on the owners, Stan’s or Google’s directions. We arrived before the others so could absorb the peace.

The house has grown like topsey so it took Indra and I quite a while to find all the bedrooms and bathrooms. 

The next morning Stan nipped into town to get some doughnuts. We fiddled around deciding what to do that day and eventually trouped out to Stan's car to find that the doors were locked. With the key inside. He never locks his car at home and always leaves the keys in the well by the gear stick (except that it is an automatic). I drove Stan in our compact rental car into town to ask at a service station where we could get help and they said their man could do it. Which they did but it was not as easy as it would have been if the man had tried the passenger door first. So we went off to the local Civil War Museum which is stuffed full of the collection oF weapons, photos, uniforms and information of just one man. 

Going through it warranted a nap.

The next day Shirl and Indra stayed home while the rest of us went to the Carriage and Car museum at Luray Caverns. They missed a treat. Uncle Pat enjoyed this museum too. And everyone took an even longer nap.

A Westcott car

Stan had one of these at high school

I missed out on seeing Linda Marchant who had driven up from North Carolina to suss out possible places to move to. She almost made it to Luray but her lovely dog, Byrne, started to pass blood. They spent the night at an emergency vet and decided to rush her home to their vet who eventually said that she “just had hemorrhagic gastritis”. She is home now.

And we are back in DC. We are staying in the embassy area near DuPont Circle which is lovely.

Back at the Holiday Inn Rosslyn

The bus that drove us back to DC was younger than the previous bus but Jo still got a back pain from sitting for 2hours which is taking its time to settle down.

But being back at the HI Rosslyn was easy. Same lousy wifi, same nice Indians who run the restaurant, etc. We kept away from the heat yesterday by going to Crystal City to renew our Costco membership. Even the staff here is amazed at how old Jo’s card is and let him keep it. They let me keep mine too as the photo is still good. . . . I must be getting enough anti-ageing whatevers without trying. The hotel supplies anti-ageing hair conditioner!

Key Bridge from Holiday Inn

Potomac River from HI

I only could find, in my size, a pair of walking sandals on my list of 4 must have shoes. Jo got a book in Costco. The book stack was half filled with books about politics and Trump. Folks are worried.

Last night we had dinner with the Southbys. Their favourite local place has closed down so they chose, on the internet, the same restaurant that Jean chose last time we visited. And she chose it then because the place across the road wasn’t available. What a coincidence. 

Today we pick up a car to drive to the Shenandoah for our get away with the Scheyers and Pathmanathans. There is no wifi at the house we have rented. So I will be back on air on Friday.

A two dog day

Yesterday I visited Paula at her house in rural Pennsylvania. I went there by the Amtrak and Paula drove for an hour to pick me up from the station in Harrisburg. (The return trip was complicated by Paula getting an unexpected doctor’s appointment so her husband Mike had to get involved as well). We had a lovely time catching up and dyeing some cotton. I got to brush her German Shepherd, Josie who is shedding gallons of hair and fluff continuously. 

Back in Philly in time for dinner, we found a trendy area and enjoyed a pavement table. Eventually the next table was occupied by a golden haired mini daschund named Scarlet OHara. Her people were happy to have me love on her.

Nice people in PA.

Overtaken by a snooze

The plan was that I meet Jo after lunch to go to the Barnes Foundation that has an outstanding collection of Impressionist paintings. So when I went through the Phidelphia Museum of Art this morning I skipped through the Impressionist rooms and spent my time upstairs (almost the only person there) in the reconstructed European interiors. Not so much reconstructed as bought as job lots from English country houses, demolished and rebuilt in the US to end up in a museum. There was an Adam’s drawing room that was never finished in London, but shifted to Philly. I saw these on my way to the one room dedicated to textiles.

Museum of Art, Philadelphia

Downstairs I enjoyed the Duchamp room (to my surprise) and the Brancussi room. And I watched an arty video by a young thing who won a prize for her Will o the Whisp. All that practice on U-Tube works.

When I got back to the hotel (and ate ravioli leftovers for lunch), Jo arrived and we both lay down for a minute that stretched into 4hours. Catching up on sleep is more important than looking at old paintings. 

The award presentation dinner tonight was not as well attended as usual (maybe because Jo paid $130 for me to attend). The prize recipient waffled on about her achievements but caught my attention when she said that her career changed direction when Trump got elected so that she moved from Yale to Vassar where she felt that she could do some good despite him. Good luck with that!

Camera to iPad fail

I went to the Apple store. The bloke at the door said that my camera can not talk to my iPad 6 because the iPad doesn’t have the means to do it. But he sent me across to the bloke by the bits and bobs who said that he had just the thing for me. He sold it to me. After museuming all day, I tried it out and it didn’t work. The iPad flatly denied being able to do anything. So I took it back and got my money back.

Which I promptly spent at a Dick Blick art supply store that is only two blocks from our hotel. What bliss. It is the biggest, best stocked art shop I have ever been in. 

So photos here will be the view from our bed. If I can figure that out.

I found the Mutter Medical Museum rather cramped and repetitive. The giant’s skeleton beside a dwarf’s was impressive. And there was a pretty herbal garden. The main reason I went was to see the woven hair which was rather creepy. The 19th C Americans really went OTT with spiked rick-rack made from the hair of everybody they knew, alive or dead.

herb garden at Mutter Museum

Then I went to the Perleman annex of the Philly Museum of Art because it is touted as a marvellous Art Deco building. Unfortunately, modern extensions and improvements have swamped the Art Deco interior. But the is an interesting exhibition of the work of Keith Smith who made lots of artists books about his life at home. I suspect he was/is a trifle obsessive/compulsive. But, you probably have to be to make art over a lifetime.

I

New iPad

Sunday Hello VA

Our plane from LA was full of the US water polo team on their way to Europe. They were such big blokes that having two such teams would fill up an Olympic pool. Of course, weather delayed our arrival at Dulles, so all the ordinary folk waited patiently while the big blokes got off to run for their connections.

This new iPad doesn’t have a Blogger app (they don’t appear in the App Store any more) and the WiFi at the Wolf Trap hotel in Vienna has always been crappy. So I will have to wait to blog until we get somewhere with good wifi. I wandered to Wholefoods after the traditional arrival dinner at Amphora. (A plate full of roasted vegetables. . my gut bacteria will be happy). Not too many shops have changed but Macgruders, the old family supermarket has gone. The Vienna Inn is still open but I noticed that a group of blokes were sitting in the cafe in Wholefoods, drinking fancy beer while they watched the game. 

I was almost the only person walking down the main drag of Vienna. Most folk have always driven, but it looks a bit deserted, even for a Sunday night.

Monday

A day at the Bank. I got a new ID. I am still in their system. Then I got a new SIM card for my phone and caught the Metro back to Vienna to have an afternoon nap. The community gardens in Nottway Park are all so neat this early in the growing season. 

(Photo to follow when I figure that out)

 Nottway Park

Could not nap but went to sleep immediately after dinner, again. To wake up at 2am, again. It was a good thing I did because the Guild News editor needed me to proof the June issue which should be at the printer already (again).

Tuesday

Caught the Greyhound from Union Station to Philadelphia. They are being run into the ground. No fancy services on those clapped out buses! But the price is right. . . $20 each. We are on the 22nd floor of the Lowes Hotel (conference rates). Jo is having an afternoon nap. I need to stay awake.

Union Station

FInally finished socks

I finally finished the socks in the yarn I bought in Cape Town: Cowgirlblues, Merino Sock, superwash, 100% wool in cobalt/airforce/blueberry/iced berry colour way.

I have knitted other stuff in the meantime and I knitted this yarn in a different pattern (Jaywalker) but didn't like how it looked when the sock was done. There wasn't any interesting pooling. Socks are my car knitting so can be slow.

This post is mostly to test my new iPad before we take off for the US on Sunday. The old one fell, dead, to the floor and I have been forced to upgrade to a generation 6 from a gen 2. Don't know why they keep changing something that worked perfectly well. . . . mutter, mutter, mutter.