3-4-10 Two evening events

This week we went to to evening events downtown. On Tuesday 3/2 Sue came down at 4pm and we took the Metro to Foggy Bottom and then walked to the National Geographic Society building. We got in early to the Terra Cotta Warriors show there so we got a bit more than an hour to tour the show. That was fine. Lots of history, pictures, paintings and models explaining the layout of the warrior find in China. There were 12 of the original figures there. It's amazing and unknown as to how these folks even created such huge clay figures and fired them. The detail on the statues is very high, even to the soles of the boots/shoes they wear. Two 1/2 scale models of chariots and carriages that were found.

We went back to Alexandria and had dinner at Landini Bros - very very good Italian food.

Then on Thursday 3/4 Sue came down at 5 and we walked uptown to find a restaurant north of the Mall. We decided to go to Rosa Mexicana across from the Verizon Center. Not you New Mexican sort of food. Very different set of tastes. It was good but I started to feel after I ate like I had an alien inside me. Never had any really bad effects, just heaviness. Probably won't go back there. It was packed anyway for a Capitols game that night.

We walked back to the Smithsonian Ripley Center to listen to a talk about the Hajj. It was pretty lame. We are doing these evening talks as part of the Smithsonian Resident program here, that gives us price breaks on the talks. Except for one, they have been pretty unimpressive if not bad. This last one suffered from lack of planning and effort. So maybe we will dial back on going to these things. One take away from the talk is the persistence of the practices at the Hajj for 1400 years. Also that this is a pilgrimage to a holy site founded by Abraham, not Muhammad.