Air and Space/National Gallery of Art

Dave and I enjoyed a long weekend for Independence Day! He had off Thursday and Friday, and wasn't scheduled on Wednesday. So we drove up to Arlington. We had a great dinner of Thai Thai food -- including lemongrass soup -- with my mom and dad while the dogs romped in the backyard. We went to DC on Thrusday. And as luck would have it, they was a folk festival celebrating Texas. Blah. But there was a good 15 piece mariachi band. We went to the Air and Space Museum, which was especially interesting since we just watched the Discovery Channel series "When We Left Earth" which chronicled the Apollo, Gemini, etc projects. We also went to the National Gallery of Art and saw the exhibit from Afghanistan's National Gallery of Art. Apparently, after the fall of the Taliban, archaeologists were permitted to come in and escavated tombs that had never before been touched. Tombs had been located in a trade-hub so it wasn't so much "Afghani" as it was of the age... More reminiscent of Egypt.

First the Air & Space Museum:

Hubble Telescope


Apollo - this little guy held three people!




They upgraded to SkyLab where everone had their own room - it was pretty cool inside but I forgot to take pictures. This was the backup model incase something went wrong on the launch of the actual Skylab.




Dave's work outfit looks a lot like the astronaut's!




In the Navy section, they had a mini Carrier where people had brought stickers and posted them of thier squadrons. The Tomcatters - the one sticker towards the right and center- is based out of Oceana.





They stopped giving shark repelent to astronauts/pilots becasue it was found to attract sharks - go figure.


F/A-18 (model)






Prowler - for Jefferton. (model)







Across the way to National Gallery of Art!




Some exhibit there... where the medium used was wood.. Dave and I thought this was cool - mainly because of mym awesome photographing abilities - but didnt care for the rest of his work. Because IT ISN'T ART! Lattice work that is 8ft by 6 ft isn't art. Dave and I discussed a) how much we dislike modern art and b) if our civilization was destroyed tomorrow, would proceeding peoples care about the lattice work or about Renoir? Does lattice work say anything about our society other than we have lost touch with what art is? No.








The following three pictures are illegal. Proceed with Caution.


Italian art through the ages - was the exhibit, beginning with byzantine art - I looved the Icons! Though they did cause some religious debate with Dave and I...

The halos were first painted (in gold) and then the details were etched in.


I wasnt able to take a picture of my favorite - one of them at least - but it was about 8ft tall, and prolly 15ft long,divided into three sections, painted on wood - a true icon - and you could see where termite like things had gotten to the wood! It was pretty cool because it was authentic.


Beginning of Afghani exhibit. This is a picture of the entering poster. The following pictures are from postcards...


Blinging necklace.

Heart earrings.

This glass is about 2000 years old! It was made in about 120,ad. And it still has the paint on it!


Dave's extactic to have Texan culture around us again. Although we both did enjoy the mariachi band, mainly because it wasn't Tejano music. And if you dont know what Tejano is, then you've never lived in South Texas.