A blast from the past!

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We met with Donna's friend Kim.  They met about 15 years ago while working with the Federal Reserve.  It was great to catch up over a beer and dinner.

We visited the combo American Art and Portrait Museums - well actually more than once.  Each portrait had blurbs about the person and his/her achievements - which was interesting to read.  It brought us back to high school history class - which made Donna happy but gave Don nightmares.

There was a portrait for each president.  Below are a few examples - not necessarily the most well known.

James Madison - coauthored The Federalist Papers (a set of 85 essays arguing for the ratification of the Constitution) and the author of the Bill of Rights (the first 10 amendments including freedom of speech, the right to bear arms.....).

Abraham Lincoln - famous enough not to add a bunch of text here.
James Garfield - possibly one of Donna's ancestors (her maiden name was Garfield); second president to be assassinated.
Gerald Ford - the only president not to be elected by the people.  If you recall, Vice President Agnew resigned and Gerald Ford was named to take his place when the 25th Amendment was implemented.  Then, Nixon resigned setting the stage for Ford to finish Nixon's second term of office.  Ford lost the next general election to Jimmy Carter.
Interesting less formal portraits of presidents - Kennedy (4th president to be assassinated), Clinton and Obama (the first African-American president)

The four female Supreme Court Justices
One of the more recent additions to the Portrait Gallery - Michelle Obama
Katherine Hepburn - won four Oscars and was one of Donna's favorite actresses as she watched old time movies growing up.
Linus Pauling is the only person to win two unshared Nobel prizes - for peace and for chemistry.
The American Art Museum shares the building.  Here are a few photos.




The museum has extensive frames conservation and art restoration departments.
We ate lunch in the interior courtyard, which by the way was beautiful!  It was remodeled and a glass roof added about 15 years ago.


We're here for a few more weeks.  Time goes by so fast when you're having fun.  We'll probably post one or two more times before leaving for Richmond, VA.

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