Today was our last day in Georgetown. John and I will remain in Washington for a couple more days, but Ellen and Mike returned to Charlottesville. Today was also Palm Sunday. I decided that I would go to Mass today as I usually do. I left the rest of the group to finish cleaning up and packing up while I walked down along Rock Creek to Saint Paul’s Parish on K Street in Foggy Bottom. I met up with members of the parish in Washington Circle. They were having a joint Palm Sunday procession with the members of Saint Stephen’s Roman Catholic church.
There was a good brass quartet to accompany the singing.
Because we stopped first at the other parish, it was a particularly long procession and it took us a full six hymns to get into the church. The service was moving and the music was good, if not quite as superb as my home parish. I met some some people there, and I think if I were a resident of the District this might likely be my church community.
On my way to the Foggy Bottom/GWU metro station I admired some of the lovely townhouses in the area. I suppose these were once fairly modest homes, but they must sell for a small fortune now.
NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM
While I was at Mass, the rest of the group packed up and went to the Natural History Museum. Apparently this was so crowded they could barely stand it. But they did see the Hope Diamond
and this peculiarly-shaped piece of Pyrite.
I met up with the rest of the group as outside the museum. There was this rather startling protest going on outside, but there always seems to be some group protesting something in Washington.
Inside the National Gallery we saw some pictures by John’s dad’s favorite artist
as well as by some of his own.
Outside the museum was this remarkable piece of sculpture by Roy Lichtenstein. The house is actually concave, but the lines the proportions trick the eye into thinking it is convex.
On our way back to the parking garage John was able to indulge his passion for 1930’s neorealism.
We met some old friends of Ellen’s for dinner. It was a lovely meal even if this picture is not flattering to anybody present at the table.
We are staying for the next three nights at the Taft Bridge Inn in the Kalorama area north of DuPont Circle. It is a lovely old mansion that has been transformed into a bed and breakfast.
