Saturday was the National Gallery. More than one person told me they thought it was a terrible idea. Both our guidebooks listed it in the bottom 10 for kids. Even Mom (who dragged me through many an art gallery back in the day) suggested that I not get my hopes up. After the LOC, I despaired, but I felt that we at least needed to spend 45 minutes or so looking around so they boys would know what the National Gallery is.

Tom is a big art lover too, so he was quite supportive, and we got the boys audio tours. Turns out there's the Director's tour for adults and a kid's tour for Nigels.

They loved it. I went with Tim, who had to stop and look at every piece of classical sculpture (there is more of that than you might imagine). He identified subjects by their greek and roman names, commented on their personalities, examined little artifacts included in the sculptures and speculated on why they might have been included, and looked for veins and faults in the marble. His favorite things in the museum were the Leonardo (Mom, look at the amazing detail of the hair and trees) and Bellini (and Titian)'s Feast of the Gods. He also loved Titian's Diana, which he prefers to call Artemis, because he prefers the Greek to the Roman.

On the video you'll see him explaining Feast of the Gods at length (and yes, let me give you an ARTISTIC NUDITY PRESENT warning).

Nigel was all business about his tour. He found the paintings with the tour numbers, punched up the commentary, and enjoyed. Alex and Tom set out after lunch for the East Wing, where Alex loved the Alexander Calder mobile and someone else I forgot who works with organic materials. Zach saw the West Building through from beginning to end. Over dinner he had lots of observations about the course of art from the middle ages through impressionism. Zach, Tim and I would have liked to have made it over to the East Building, but unfortunately they kicked us out of the West Building at 5 pm with things yet to see.

Today Tim told me he plans to be an artist and at bedtime I found him practicing ways that he wanted to pose his models (thankfully he was fully clothed).

After closing the National Gallery, we met up with the Bowmans and crammed into a taxi (all 9 of us!) to visit the Lincoln Memorial as a conclusion to the day. I note that the kids are much more conversant with the history of Martin Luther King--and much more excited to see the "I have a dream" plaque--than they are with the history of Lincoln and the Civil War. A historical hole that I plan to fill starting tomorrow with our visit to the Lincoln cottage.

Today we had a quiet Sunday, visiting the Rockville ward and discovering Jeff and Marisol Franks behind us when a speaker shared a story about how they had come to her rescue when she was stranded after a car accident an hour outside DC. Melinda Baird is also brand new in the ward and played a musical number. Mormon world is a small one indeed.

Well, this wasn't fascinating, but I'm exhausted, so here's the video, and more tomorrow...