The highlight of yesterday was definitely The Renwick Gallery. At about lunchtime there was almost no one in the gallery and I saw a sign for a tour. What happened was that on of the docents was in the gallery and ready to give a tour. Since I was the only one there at that moment, I was the only one on the tour until we reached the third floor. The main exhibit on the first floor is Right at Home American Studio Furniture. It's a terrific exhibit IMHO and some of the highlights are the furniture by Sam Maloof and Wendell Castle. Wendell Castle's Ghost Clock is a special favorite of mine and many other visitors to the Renwick. Another favorite is Kim Schmahmann's Bureau of Bureaucracy the craftmanship and humor in this piece is ten steps above. Others joined the tour when we reached the third floor and in the grand salon we saw the Treasures from the SAAM which is closed for renovation. One of the pictures which focuses on a visit to George Washington's grave has a hidden picture in it of the first president. Another visitor was taking a picture with a good camera and since I only had a disposable camera he said he would e-mail it to me. Then I shared with him and his daughter the highlights that the docent shared with me of the other areas they hadn't seen.
Lafayette Square was just delightful, warm and breezy, and a nice respite with a good view of the front of the Whitehouse (most people take pictures of the back) and then a visit to St John's Church to see where the president worships. A chai shake, was tasty, and the shortbread cookies were ok, at Teaism but what I had really wanted was cream tea. They didn't seem to know what that was and I wasn't up for going to one of the high teas at the hotels nearby. Today in their web site I found out I should have asked for afternoon tea but I didn't see that posted anywhere in the restaurant. They have Asian and Traditonal supposedly.