Sunday was bright and warm. At church in the morning we heard a message from Reverend Paula Dempsey of the Alliance of Baptists and sang an Emma Lou Diemer gradual. After a Thai lunch we walked down through DC to the National Gallery, stopping by the White House and the Renwick Gallery en route.

At the National Gallery we viewed the Pre-Raphaelites exhibition. We’re not actually big Pre-Raphaelite fans; their painting techniques and execution were generally crude and unrefined, and the subject matter epitomized a very Victorian tendency towards melodrama. To cleanse our palates we descended to the Armand Hammer Collection and viewed an actual drawing by Raphael, his Madonna and Child with Saint John the Baptist:

Also on view was Faking It: Manipulated Photography before Photoshop, an overview of photographic trickery from the 19th Century to the 1980s. Also, there were azaleas around the fountain:

We ended the day with a walk down the National Mall towards Metro. It was unseasonably warm for March, which made for a pleasant ramble.

After so many busy weeks, it was nice to finally be able to spend a day together out and about in the District.