Last day...

For a last day, today has been a good one. I started out mailing a box northward - which I did in Arlington. Note to self, always mail from Arlington. It was fast and efficient and seemed cheaper than mailing from the Watergate or the bullet-proof glass enclosed 14th street station (oh, the holdouts from when it was the ghetto my old hood was also colourful...)

I then hit the Air and Space Museum on the Mall (finally) and the Hirshhorn collection. This makes my Smithsonian museum tally 10 of 19. Not too shabby really, considering I only missed ones like the Postal Museum (and if you've used USPS you would not blame me!) Air and Space is impressive as you might expect. Apollo moon landers, Sputnik, Spirit of St. Louis, Wright Bros flyer, I mean the place is full of iconic history. And very well laid out and easy to follow. Though full of very loud children so I only lasted about an hour and a half but feel I saw everything I wanted to.

The Hirshhorn is a small collection of interesting modern art mostly from the 60s and mostly American. They had a special exhibit by French artist Yves Klein who I did not know but was amazed by. The exhibit was also curated extremely well so you would enter a room and be breath-taken by what you saw. His work was mostly monochromatic and so one entire room was aquamarine. The Hirshhorn is a cylinder and so the rooms are curved. The aquamarine spread around the curve so it was all your eye could see. I wish I'd written down one of his quotes they had on the wall as it was very moving and similar to what an artist friend has told me about finding his way in to his own art. Yves spoke about how when he started with colour it felt like he'd found himself and had finally come home in his work. Maybe that opened up the collection to me as well because I found it all very moving. "Lasts" are hard.

I had lunch out in Eastern Market with a fellow and her mom at a little cafe that had been written up about but I hadn't made it to yet. (good but over-priced) And so I've said my final fellow good-bye.

There are so many people to thank for me being able to go on this adventure and feel I've been successful. So many friends who have helped when I've been a stressed out crazy person (more of that to follow!!). I am very lucky. And of course my family who have been so proud...it's all been amazing. Even the hard bits. I wish of course that my Mum had known that I'd been accepted here, but I feel she's been with me for it all, walking with me, having a good chuckle and enjoying all the flowers.

I suppose I have to decide what to do with this blog now! We'll see what the next chapter is before retiring it completely.

See you all soon.