A Visit to The Mall (No, Not That Mall)

The day after Christmas, most people head to the mall to take advantage of post-holiday sales galore. Not my family. We stay as far away from stores as we can get. And when we're in Washington D.C., guaranteed you'll find us hitting up some of our favorite spots in the city.

Conservative Boy says it's touristy. Naw. Well, maybe part of it. But taking advantage of all the museums at The Smithsonian (that is, along The Mall) is not touristy. It's terrific.

Here's a look at our day-after-Christmas exploits.

First stop: The National Gallery. Always. Every time anyone in my family is in D.C., a quick walk through the National Gallery is a must. That always means a stop at our favorite Impressionist paintings (you know, Monet, Renoir, Pissarro, Degas) and the post-impressionists (Seurat, Cézanne, Gauguin, and Van Gogh).

We also wandered around the newest exhibit: Jan Lievens, A Dutch Master Rediscovered.

After our quick trip through the National Gallery, we stopped at the newest museum on The Mall: The National Museum of the American Indian.

Just the facade of the building was pretty impressive—its curvy exterior is clad in Kasota limestone to emulate rock formations shaped by wind and water over thousands of years. The interior was pretty interesting (and, admittedly, delicious) too—but I'm saving that for another post. Just because I can. (Oh, and in case you're wondering, those three people moseying toward the building are My Dad, My Mom, and My Sister. They can't ever seem to escape the paparazzi.)

After the American Indian museum, we of course engaged in a few obligatory tourist activities. Like taking photos of the Capitol.


And checking out the Christmas tree outside of the White House.

We also felt it necessary to find the small tree representing Wyoming (once a Wyomingite, always a Wyomingite) ... In case you're wondering, those are tiny jackalopes in the ornaments on the Wyoming tree. Oh, the jackalope. Go ahead, ask me if they're real.


Our last stop of the day? It's another given. We had to have oysters and cocktails at Old Ebbitt Grill.

But again, more about that later.