In hog heaven

I had to stop myself from throwing myself across the threshold of the National Gallery of Art and weeping openly this afternoon.

I love the National Gallery so much Margaret actually asked me this as we walked through those hollowed halls today:

Mar: "Do you love being here more than you love me?"

Of course not, but that National Gallery is pretty high on the list of things I love.

One of my favorite moments was while we were standing in a gallery with portraits by John Singer Sargent, James McNeill Whistler and Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres. I am in awe of them all. Margaret decided she liked this one by Ingres the best.

Ingres rocks and I was super impressed that she was drawn to any of them, let alone the one by Ingres. Super awesome.

It's been more than 12 years since I've been to D.C. and all the treasures it holds. It has been wonderful revisiting all the places I grew to love while in graduate school. Plus I'm seeing some things I never saw before, like the National Zoo.

Mar and I spent all morning trudging past cool animal after cool animal. Much to Margaret's relief, we got to see the giant panda. It was really the only thing that she wanted to do while we are here in the nation's capital.

But we also saw some crazy giant fish from the Amazon.


This fish is way bigger than I am and I'm not embarrassed to admit that it freaked me out a bit. I pretended it didn't because I wanted Mar to enjoy the exhibit. Now there's some good mama skillz.

After a long day of walking hither and yon, Mar and I joined Bill and his colleagues for a dinner on the waterfront. We ate at a seafood place that had an all-you-can-eat seafood buffet. I ate so many different kinds of fish that I don't even know the names of them all.

Mm seafoody goodness.

I can't wait for tomorrow.