After working out the extra night in Washington DC so that Katie and the kids can have an extra day at the beach (and they’ve really needed it because the weather has not been all terribly kind to them so far…some years at the coast are like that!), I’m finally off to the Mall for a decidedly easier day of museum hopping than the five museums I was planning for today!

Today’s goal is to visit the Freer Museum of Art, the Smithsonian HQ Castle, and Hirshhorn Museum of Art.

The first thing is to actually get to the Weihle-Reston East train station for the hour long journey on the rails to the Smithsonian Station. This turned out to be much easier today as the Herndon Parkway rules and I was able to give the detour into Fairfax a miss! 🙂

One of the nice things about Weihle-Reston East being at the end of the Silver line is that the trains do hang about in the station for a while which makes walking on to one is much easier than usual.

When I got to the Mall, the Freer Museum was closed so I went over to enjoy the Victorian-style garden behind the Smithsonian Headquarters which rather looks like a castle to me like the ones you can find on Duke University’s campus (still not a Dook fan but you’ve got to admit their architecture rules!), only much darker stone work.

Those gardens are incredibly gorgeous and it took a good hour to take it all in and that was well worth the time.

After yesterday’s activities at the Holocaust Museum, being able to enjoy the beauty of the flowers and the fountains was a very welcome thing indeed. 🙂