Book 2: The Golden Thread Day 29 (July 5, 2015)

Today was a crazy sightseeing day. Cameron and I rode bikes (hurrah for the public bikesharing system that DC has) down to the Smithsonian area of DC. We first went to see Union Station in DC. Picture taking was hard because there were nets strung up in case plaster falls off, and they are still doing repairs from the earthquake that happened a while back, so scaffolds and zoned off areas were up. (Some pictures will be up probably later on this week).

Afterwards, we walked to see the Capital Dome where Cameron criticized my picture taking because I didn't center my frame. The problems of touring with an architect. I'm only kidding, it's fascinating walking around with him because he knows so much history and will never hesitate to give honest opinion on architecture of buildings.

excuse the ugly scaffolding. and huge bandage.

The almost-Cameron-approved photo

Afterwards, we walked to the United States Botanical Gardens and I spent an outrageously large amount of time there looking at too many plants. It was interesting, but towards the end, I got too tired of seeing plant after plant after plant. I may create a facebook album and post the link later, but no pictures here, because there are just too many and I'll have to take some time to go through them anyways.

Edit: pictures here.

We crossed the street, heard some music, and saw that the Folklife Festival was going, and it was this Peru festival. We watched some performers play traditional Peruvian music, and then we wandered around tents. I got stuck at this weaving/loom booth for so long, Cameron decided he wanted to go home and I stayed for a while.

I stood there probably for at least half an hour just watching this lady.

Halfway, she started gesturing and fanning herself, and mentioning "caliente" to a few hispanic people watching. This European man walks over and starts conversing with her in fluid Spanish. And after, I ask him if I should get her a cup of water, and he agrees, so I fill up a cup and set it down beside her. She picks it up immediately (after she finishes her row of "stitches") and drinks a little, daintily. Everything about her is graceful. She muscles the loom to make sure all the created patterns are condensed together at the bottom, but she deftly weaves her stick in and out of these numerous strands. It escapes me how she has such immense foresight to know which strands to go "over" and which strands to wrap under her guiding stick, in order to create the larger picture.

It's a long, time-consuming process. Exceedingly slow, but incredibly beautiful. I talked with this man for a little bit after I gave the artisan water, and he recommended me to a book. He was being modest when he deferred my question to if he was fluent in Spanish, saying that he married a Peruvian woman and it's been 50 years now.

I left a little while later, started walking to the metro station, but I got sidetracked numerous times. First it was the Smithsonian Art Sculpture Garden, where I walked around. I saw this fancy building, I crossed the street, only to see that it was the National Archives, which I have been meaning to visit. I looked at the open hours and it closes at 5:30pm. I glance at my watch, which reads exactly 5:30pm. Another weekend I suppose.

Visited the Smithsonian Museum of American History, only had an hour there and so I didn't get to see much, but I'll allot a whole day in the near future to revisit because there's just too much jampacked into one building.

I walked through the Reagan International Trade Center plaza area, and the architecture is so antique and beautiful. I saw a few people riding segeways in circles within an area coned off, which is a daily occurrence, actually, but it felt a little odd, since the plaza was empty and quiet, besides them.

Visited 8 places, walked between all 8, and it's been an eventful day, albeit a little too much so. Back to work tomorrow, and next week, week 5, is supposed to get a little crazy!