6-23-10 Wednesday (Wasted Scarves)

Other than today being my 40th birthday, it’s damn hard to top yesterday’s Segway fun.  I’ll tell you now, we didn’t top it so don’t bother looking for “it”.

We woke up early, and headed out the door by 8:30am to catch a 10am rose garden tour at south tower at the Smithsonian Castle.  It was in the mid to upper 90’s today so we were happy that the tour was fairly quick and involved a lot of talking in the shade.

Above: Our tour guide, Brett.

Above: So pretty, I took 2 pictures! 

Above: Jim says, “Oh, the Lee Ann Rimes Rose bush – much like her career, nothing’s blooming.”

With a 12 o’clock tour coming up we decided to have an early lunch.  A security guard recommended having lunch at the Smithsonian American Indian Museum.  Wow.  What an interesting food court of different Indian foods from different regions.  Check out this link to the cafe, and then this link to the Spring 2010 menu.   The summer menu wasn’t available at the time of posting so I’ll have to tell you and show you what I ate.  I had 2 side dishes.  I had this cold salt cod, heart of palms and chick pea salad.  This is a strange selection for me but this diet has been about trying new things.  It was delish and as best as I can figure, the points are super low.  The other thing I had was a yummy and very spicy cold salad of zucchini, pearl onions in a caramelized chili something.  Good stuff.  Jim had a pork sandwich and guacamole.  Thrilling, eh?

Next up was that 12 o’clock tour at the Smithsonian Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden.  I just can’t understand some of this art.  Really.  It does nothing for me.

Above: Yeah, yarn hanging.  Jim says, “Somebody could have had a nice scarf with all that yarn.”

The museum tour guide did a great job at having us think about what the artist was trying to convey.  In the end, I was bored and uninterested.  I really hate art museums.  I think what cinches it was when we walked into a small DARK room that projected a reddish light.  We confirmed with the attendant that what we saw was all that there was to it.  Really?  I mean, really?  Ugh.

Next we went to the Building Museum. 

Above: The lobby area of the museum was grand.

I rushed through the exhibits while Jim took his time.  My age 40 had set in and I was in excruciating back pain and kept seeking out places to sit.

Above: The line to get into the National Archives was too long to visit right now.

 Above: Jim pointed out this building which seemed like it should have been made of brick or something.  It was a lot of glass.

On to the Weight Watchers:

For chili we made in the crockpot, I took all the ingredients and entered them into the Weight Watchers Recipe Builder to calculate the points.  For my birthday dessert we went to Cold Stone.  Mmmmmmmmm.

A year ago we toured another museum which dealt with a famous assassination.  Up the block a memorial (we didn’t cry this time).   Dinner and a movie with a friend.   Read about it here.  Happy birthday to me!

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