DC - Day 3: Art Day

This was our last day in DC before heading over to WV for Thanksgiving celebrations so it would be a bit abbreviated. 

That doesn't mean we won't sleep in again though! In fact, this time we didn't even make it down to the restaurant for breakfast. I went down and brought back some takeout orders for the sleepy crew to chow down around noon. 

After stuffing ourselves with pancakes and croissants again, we headed off for more culture.

Here's an entrant from the Sculpture Garden on the National Mall. 

There was this other one of a house that was kind of trippy -- you couldn't really tell if it was flat or concave or convex at first but then once you figured it out, you couldn't see the other perspectives anymore. Pretty cool!

Appreciating the Peacock Room:

This suspended Bi from ancient China is estimated to be almost 5000 years old! Amazingly well preserved. The edges were SO precise. 

Panorama of the Buddha room. 

We saw alot of other cool artifacts from Mesopotamia, Persia, Egypt, and China -- good supplement to the Social Studies units.

Parting shot!

Final thoughts:

- Staying within walking distance of the museums was crucial. If we come again, I probably would have optimized for that even more. 

- Two museums is probably our maximum for any given day -- but things like sculpture gardens or monuments were nice for diversity. 

- The Conrad was a really nice property -- beds were comfy, service was good, the twins loved the panda gifts, and between the $60 breakfast credit each day and the $100 food/beverage credit, we basically paid nothing for our three brunch meals (menu variety was very standard American but quality was pretty good).

- Dry shoes and layers are crucial to keep complaining about outdoors walking to a minimum. 

- The DC Circulator is amazing for monument transportation. 

- Pre-Thanksgiving timing is actually pretty ideal, not too cold when it's not raining, crowds didn't seem bad except at the Lincoln Memorial, were able to get same day or walk-in visits to everything we wanted to see (except White House).

- We will now bring the portable hot pot cooker on every family trip. 😋

DC trip over - next on the list: Japan for spring break!