Until Next Year

This is a Gulf Fritillary taken at the Butterfly house this morning.  After today, the house will be closed until the end of next April. It was a beautiful cool morning after a rather cool night.  I was the first person in the house and I found some chilly butterflies, sitting very still and not easily disturbed.  This was unlike any of my previous experiences there when they are all flying about. It didn’t last long, however, because soon other people came, with lots of small children and the butterflies were soon all aflutter. 

Last night’s live performance of the Marriage of Figaro, broadcast from the Kennedy Center onto the jumbo HD screen at Nationals Park for the annual Opera in the Outfield event was wonderful.  The temperatures were comfortable, the acoustics were fantastic and the performance was pure delight. That Mozart was a really funny guy.  There were about 5000-6000 other folks there with us taking advantage of this free evening out.  After the performance, during the curtain call, all the cast came out with their Nationals baseball caps on, much to everyone’s delight.  Coincidentally, the Washington Nationals clinched the National League Eastern Division title that same evening and are headed for the playoffs.  

Yesterday was also the long-awaited opening of the National Museum of African American History and there was all kinds of hoopla for that. We will go see it when the crowds die down.  

I had this all ready to upload this afternoon but had to wait for blip to come back on line.  Tonight we attended the National Symphony Orchestra Gala and opening night of the new season. It was a wonderful combination of classical music and Jazz. Before the concert and during intermission (interval) we had a chance to see some of our friends from the orchestra and to chat with Lang Lang who was one of the guest artists for tonight’s gala. (Some of you may remember that we went on the European tour with the orchestra & Lang Lang last February for 3 weeks.)  

All in all, it was a wonderful weekend for Washington D.C.