This morning when I was getting ready for our trip I was digging through my "shoe closet" a.k.a. the pile of sneakers I keep under my bed. I usually keep about 12 pairs of shoes in rotation. On Tuesday when we went to PA, I wore my grey suede 574 New Balances. At some point I also wore my blue/grey canvas Superstar Adidas. When I reached under the bed I pulled out one of each. I was looking for the other New Balance. I pulled another shoe out that felt like the other New balance. I put each foot on the ledge of the crate under my desk and tied each individual shoe while reading the news feed on my screen.
I head downstairs and eat then have my dad drop us off at the Metro. We get to P.G. and jump on the train going downtown. Somewhere halfway to Fort Totten I glance at my left foot. I instantly notice I have the Adidas on and think I though I was wearing the New Balances. Then I look at my right foot. I blurt out "We need to go home right now!!" My wife, alarmed asks why. I point at my shoes. She busts out laughing and cussing, claiming that she's gonna pee her pants. My wife, especially found this funny becaus back in the day, when we were still dating, I once showed up at her house wear a black leather slip-on Kenneth Cole on my left foot, and brown leather Thom Mcann lace-up on my right. It wasn't until she opened the door, and asked, "what the hell is that?", that I realized my mistake.
We got off at the Smithsonian station and walked to the Freer. I had never been and didn't know what to expect. I love art, but secretly would have wanted to go to the National Gallery of Art for that. We got in, and got a map. The reason my wife wanted visit the Freer was because they were featuring Asian art exhibits. The were focused on Chinese dynastic artifacts and Japanese Silk art. We also saw some great Muslim art from Iran and Hindu statues from India. I really liked the Persian and Chinese Bronze artifacts and statues. Some of this stuff was from the second century B.C. All I thought was, why can't I find stuff like this at the thrift store.
 |
| A dragon sculture found a burial found at burial site to protect from demons |
 |
| Ganesh |
After leaving the Freer we walked past the Smithsonian Castle and another museum that was closed for exterior renovations. We walked the grounds of the Hirshhorn. They have one the best outdoor sculpture gardens. A ton of bronze sculptures collected and donated by Joseph Hirshhorn. We noticed the enormous "camera like" machines mounted on the outer walls of the museum. My wife thought they may have been red light cameras, but were pointing inward. I figured they were some type of spot lights to the illuminate the exterior of the building at night. This afternoon I found an article of my wall about tonight's debut of an exhibit at the Hirshorn, where they will project moving images on to the exterior walls, oh that's what that was.
When walking over to the Native American History I quickly realized how massive and impressive that museum is. It's a beautiful sandy stone structure. Asymmetrical, almost like a dessert Guggenheim. They had a nice fountain and pond surrounding the sides of the building. It was so peaceful and cool. My wife and I both visualized having a similar structure at our dream home. We made our way to the entrance and found this majestic 10 foot tall bronze statue of a warrior with a buffalo head dress. It was so life like, that if 10 foot giants walked among us, I would have not noticed it. After passing through the security check we immediately started seeing displays. They featured many things you would expect to see, such as beaded clothing and shoes, a totem pole and a horse statue. Then there it was, a Volkswagen Beetle completely adorned with Native American bead work. It was so pretty and decorated to honor Native American heritage. I noticed that is was decorated my a Mexican Indian couple from Jalisco Mexico. Mexico? I started looking for the hydraulics and imagined that the horn played La Cucaracha. I was surprised how many artifacts they had from across the Americas. I saw items from the Chesapeake area, and Delaware to Costa Rica, Peru, Chile, Alaska, The Dakotas and even Canada.
After spending enough time in the Native American History we took a break out front. I looked through the map I had, to see which was closest Metro to return home from. It was also lunchtime. I don't think my wife wanted to spend $11.45 at the refreshments stand on a hot dog and soda (when we can get a superior dog at Costco with a soda for $1.50) We headed towards L'Enfant Plaza to hop the Green line home. Then in the distance I noticed them. They were shiny multicolored and in a pack. I asked my wife if she saw what I saw. She said, "what a truck" I announced, "a food truck, a bunch of food trucks" Living in P.G. county you don't see food trucks much anymore. I only see food trucks on The Food Network or The Cooking Channel. I sometime spot them on my drive home, but it seems a bit pressed to find parking around Freedom Plaza just to eat off a food truck. This time we had them cornered and had a lot of choices. We hit up the panini truck and I had to try a DC Empanada, their oatmeal and rum raisin sandwich cookie was on point. Everything we ate was quite good considering we got it of a truck. I'm glad I got to check off "eat from a food truck" of my things I had to do list.
For the record I wore my mix-matched shoes all day, and am still wearing them as I write this. The truth is that my feet have been super comfortable today. The shoe type on my left supports my foot well and the shoe type on my right doesn't wreak havoc on my corns. Plus I figured if anyone tried to clown me on the street, I would kick them in the ass with one foot and leave a shoe print on their back with the other.
No comments:
Post a Comment