I was selected by leadership in my building to attend Leadership Training in Washington, D.C. for 11 days. :) I arrived on Sunday August 16th, and will leave Wednesday August 26. I flew in via United and had a layover in Chicago's O'Hare Airport. Of course, it was storming there, and my plane got delayed 3 hrs! There was a cool dinosaur in the airport I had to get a pic of.When I finally arrived in D.C., it was 9:30 p.m. D.C. time. I made the foolish mistake of taking the metro to my hotel, and walking from the station. Picture this, I was walking with one suitcase in each hand, plus a laptop bag and a purse over one of my shoulders. I also had no clue where I was going and I ended up lost in Chinatown. DUMB!!!!! I almost got mugged, a hobo I passed was sitting on the side of the road drinking, saw me and laughed and got up to follow me. Thank God for the policeman around the corner, who I stopped and got directions from.
I made it to Hotel Monaco eventually. They put us up in a very nice hotel, across the street from one of the Smithsonian Art museums.
The hotel is very trendy, and even has a complimentary wine tasting every evening.
I apparently got the largest room the hotel has. Most are tiny, as in you have no room for luggage. I really lucked out.
The training is held in a room on the top floor of the hotel. This building is historic, and actually used to be the postal building until 2002 when it got converted to the hotel.
After class, I have started to explore downtown Washington, D.C. I am fortunate enough to have all the major museums, the monument, the archive building, and the capitol within walking distance. First, I explored a sculpture garden.
The sculptures were ok....... they are nothing compared to the quality you see in Loveland, CO. However, the gardens throughout were superb (probably because of the insane humidity).
I also toured an art museum. I could not believe the quality of art they had there. It was free admission, which was shocking!
First off, I saw an original Da Vinci painting!!!
Here is the back of the painting, beautiful!
Next, a sculpture of Jon the Baptist completed in 1460!
The building was made of solid marble!
This divine altar piece came from Abruzzo, Italy. It is on loan to the United States because we were the first to come to their aide when a devastating earthquake nearly destroyed their town in April, 2009. This piece came from a museum there that is now condemned. It is called the Beffi Triptych.
Here is yet another unique painting of whaling in the 1500's.
Of course you all know, this is a Monet. They had 5 on display, all equally astonishing.
One of my favorite parts was the private armor collection from the 1500's on display.
It was so immaculate. I could not believe how detailed it was, could you imagine how long it would take someone to make this?! This was all royal armor. I wish I had some kind of scale for you to see how small they are. The full suits of armor would fit a 10-year old in today's world. There will be plenty more pictures to come. Cody is flying in as I type, and we are going to tour all weekend! He wasn't going to come originally, but when he heard how scared I was on Sunday, he bought plane tickets for Friday through Wednesday. This will be a new experience for both of us, especially since the furthest East Cody has been is Omaha, NE. We are going to have a ton of fun!
