weekend jaunt

A lot has been said in the media lately about local desinations being popular this summer or the 'staycation'. Use this little reminder as your incentive to get out there and see something new: it is the season after all!

Photos of the Palace of Fine Arts in San Francisco (not local, but a destination none the less!).

A gift for your architect.

I saw these creative cufflinks on Ebay and thought they were so clever! Architectural measurements of the actual cufflink of 3/4" x 1/2"; they even got the script right! Yours for only $45 on ebay HERE (PS: I have no affiliation with the seller at all).

National Gallery of Art

I'm loving my new iphone! While at the National Gallery of Art this past weekend I was having fun playing around with it in the front gardens; probably my favorite spot in the city

Even the video function which I never thought I would use is a really fun toy! The front entrance on the Mall is flanked by 2 small identical gardens with these huge, beautiful marble fountains in the center: Enjoy the fountain video- turn up your sound!

Rainbows

Rainbows are a reminder that tomorrow is always another day. (bonus points if you name that movie!)

Pictures taken at Sugarleaf Vineyard in Charlottesville, VA and Provincetown, Cape Cod.

The original Roosevelt Memorial.

Visitors to Washington, DC always stop at the amazing Roosevelt Memorial of water features, pictured above, completed in 1997. However, most people aren't familiar with the original Roosevelt Memorial which is largely forgotten.Located across from the National Archives at 9th St NW & Pennsylvania Avenue in a little grassy plot, a simple piece of square marble simply says: "In memory of: Franklin Delano Roosevelt, 1882 - 1945" as seen above.

This plaque bears the story of how this strange monument came to be. Roosevelt told the Supreme Court Justice Felix Frankfuter

"If any memorial is to be erected to me, I know exactly what I should like it to be. I should like it to consist of a block about the size of this desk and placed in the center of that green plot in front of the Archives Building. I don't care what it is made of, whether limestone or granite or whatnot, but I want it to be plain without any ornamentation , with the simple carving, In memory of.."

I have to agree - simple is stronger.