High Museum of Art

Kevin and I visited the High Museum of Art to see two special exhibits. One was ancient Nubian art and artifacts, like these:

The other special collection was much larger, and full of Samurai art and artifacts from Japan.

Atlanta High Museum of Art: A Visual Diary

In which we go to the National Archives

After we were done at the National Gallery of Art, we ventured to the National Archives to see our national treasures.

One must not take photos in the National Archives, so there are no photos of the national treasures. But we saw the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, and the Magna Carta.  We explored a few exhibits that were very interesting. One was about how the documents are preserved and protected.

The kids came up with a set of rules for how to behave in the heavily guarded and fortified exhibit hall that housed the important documents and national treasures.  The first rule of the politics room was that you were not to discuss politics in the politics room.  You also had to make sure not to get too mixed up with the school groups that were marching through to glimpse the documents.

My friend Jala met up with us and walked through the National Archives with us, and put up with all the kids' crazy politics room rules.  And when we were done in the Archives, we headed to a pub kinda place for dinner.

Lex ordered a steak and poured and entire bottle of A-1 sauce on it because he had already eaten wings at every other meal during our DC trip.  Connor ordered wings, because Lex didn't.

And it turns out that my friend Jala and I have excellent taste in purses.

National Gallery of Art

While we were in Washington, the kids and I spent a morning at the National Gallery of Art.  We only explored the West Building, which is the home of the art before modern art.

Prepare yourself for a photo bomb drop in 3...2...1...

(because this is the best way to talk about an art museum, obviously)

The art in the galleries was very thoughtfully arranged in order by period and style and time.

These photos are not thoughtfully arranged.

So if you prefer some sort of order, I recommend that you go to the museum in person.

This is a haphazard photo bomb presentation.

Feel free to click on the pictures to see the pictures bigger.  

They are beautiful.

We stopped for a break in the museum cafe and ordered a very fancy cheese platter.

It was amazing.

Selfie time!

Definitely click on this one and read the caption.

It's crazy.

This one is a Van Gogh.

Connor is a big fan of Van Gogh.

So am I.

I think the whole world is, actually.

Botticelli is one of my favorite artists!

There were easels and stools in many of the galleries for people to use so that they could paint while they were in the galleries.  

This is Ginevra de 'Benci by Leonardo DaVinci.

And the back is even art-worthy, so it's in a free-standing case with a cut out so that you can view the back of the painting.

After we had walked around as many galleries as we wanted, we headed to the gelato counter in the basement underground tunnel that connects the East Building to the West Building.  So no, we didn't see everything.  It was a lovely museum and everything in it was so beautiful.