DC Trip: Day 3

Our third and fourth days in DC were a little bit more relaxing. The morning at the B&B was a little odd, though. Forgive the detailed story about the toaster situation, but it bothered me at the time. The regular B&B management was not around when I got up for breakfast; instead, another lady was handling the kitchen and clearly was not aiming for customer experience. I was all set to toast my own bagel using one of the three available toasters set up in the dining area, without any need for eggs or anything that might require assistance. Because they only had mini-bagels, I opted for the traditional toaster where you can lay the bagel flat, as opposed to the sideways-entry toaster, which is really meant for larger items. I placed my bagel halves in the toaster and realized it wasn't plugged in, so I reached around the table and plugged it in. Out of nowhere, this lady appears and tells me "You can use the other toaster!" Taken aback, I said "this is fine, I plugged it in". Clearly still invested in my bagel-making tactics, she pointed out "this one has a bagel setting!" OOOOKKKKK. I could tell she was edgy, so I looked at her blankly and moved my bagels to the sideways toaster that she desperately wanted me to use. Of course, the bagel setting was actually meant for normal-size bagels, not mini ones so it didn't really work out. As soon as I got the bagels in the preferred toaster, she grabbed the tray from the first toaster, dumped the few crumbs into the trash can, put the tray back in and unplugged it. WHATEVER. If she really didn't want people to use it because she didn't want to clean it, then it shouldn't have been an option on the table. Sigh.

Our first stop of the day was the Smithsonian Hirshhorn museum, which is primarily sculptures, mixed in with a few other exhibits. The exhibits included:

* An art series by Morris Louis. His striped canvases appealed to me tremendously. I may try to find a print of one that I really like for framing purposes.

* A room with a name plate that was called "Milk Run". The idea was that you were supposed to walk into this darkened hallway with glow-tape arrows to direct you to an even darker room. The messaging dictated that you wait several minutes for your eyes to adjust and said not to "walk in the white area". A security guard stood in the area between the semi-darkened hallway and the "milk run". She guided us, one at a time through the darkness by holding our elbow and asked us if we wanted to sit. Sure, why not. This involved further elbow guiding until she gestured (I could barely see) to an area that had a bench. By this time, I realized we had been guided past a row of people already seated on what was a bleacher-like bench. After my eyes adjusted, I was embarrassed at how much those people could see us stumbling around, shoulders hunched and hands out searching for solid objects. The milk run itself was just a stark white floor with a reddish-orange lighting glow coming from around the corner that projected onto the white floor. It was very serious in there and I asked Rod if he thought we should expect anything else. We eventually got up and left. The security guard told us that "milk run" implied a sunrise on a farm and that was what the exhibit was about.

* A video that was more like animal performance art. The artist videotaped a wild wolf and a wild deer together in a white room; basically, taking two wild animals out of their natural element and watching what happened. The images would zoom in on the deer, which was clearly stressed out (breathing hard and darting eyes). The wolf circled around but got bored and laid on the ground to sleep after a while. The goal was to have observers look deeper into themselves (according to the signage). It didn't do much for introspection (for me anyway).

More tomorrow...