Washington D.C. Day 3, 2022

• By Barry & Allyn Shulman
• On November 9, 2022
• 2 Comments.

The White House is clearly one of those bucket list places to visit.

They only let us on the East Wing where they entertain. We didn’t have an opportunity to have coffee with the Pres, or even his staff.

First, they scan the ticket, then you go through a security check where they scan your license. You are forbidden from bringing most items in – not even women’s purses. Then they have a dog walk around and sniff you. Then they manually enter your license number. Then you are security screened like at the airport.

See the notch on the top. That is where Nancy Reagan used to peer out at her incoming guests to be certain that nobody was wearing the same dress as she.

Just strolling down Pennsylvania Avenue – so exciting.

We spent considerable time at The National Gallery of Art, but as in other museums barely saw a fraction of what they have on display, let alone in storage.

It really helps to have somebody tell us what we are looking at and what it means.

Many Americans can’t wait to get to the Louvre in Paris to see the Mona Lisa, by Leonardo da Vinci. We saw and learned about his only painting in the Western Hemisphere, the portrait of Florentine Ginevra de’ Benci, commissioned between 1474 and 1478. We had significant time to analyze its story and loveliness up close at The National Gallery of Art which is impossible in Paris.

It seems like every big art museum has an original Rodin, The Thinker. This one is no exception.

Dinner was at Old Ebbit Grill, Washington’s oldest saloon founded in 1856. And the food is good as well as the ambiance.

We had lots of seafood. Most was gone by the time I remembered to take a photo.