Greetings from the National Mall

We spent a really nice afternoon in DC on Saturday, in gorgeous weather so we did a great deal of walking. We parked at L'Enfant Plaza and went by way of the sculpture garden to the Hirshhorn Museum, which has an interactive exhibit called Pulse by Rafael Lozano-Hemmer that uses sensors tracking the heart rates of volunteer museum visitors to create a sound and light show animating their life signs. It's pretty amazing. Then we went through the Smithsonian Castle gardens to Empresses of China's Forbidden City at the Sackler Gallery, which has three floors of artifacts of the Qing dynasty women. We also stopped at the Freer Gallery's Peacock Room while it has no porcelain on display for renovations.

Then we crossed the Mall to go to the National Museum of American History, which has a small exhibit of superhero comic book art and costumes from adaptations including Captain America's shield, Wolverine's claws, and the Batmobile! We got soft ice cream from one of the trucks near the Washington Monument and headed to the Floral Library, which has dozens of different color tulips in bloom, and from there to the Tidal Basin, where what's left of the cherry blossoms are mostly drying petals on the ground. Then we circled back to our car, drove home, had faux chicken in hollandaise for dinner, and watched Life of Brian in honor of Easter, which I hope everyone who's celebrating enjoys!