National Gallery of Art Light Tunnel

There are a lot of underground tunnels on Capitol Hill. I worked at the Library of Congress for ten years and one of the first events I attended was the dedication of a tunnel that was going to be constructed from the Library to the new Capitol Visitor Center. In the afternoon I walked that way so many times to step away from the office. Aside from that, there are tunnels that connect the library to the house office buildings to the Capitol and from the Capitol over to the senate side. One of the more interesting “tunnels” is the one that connects the east side of the National Gallery of Art to the West side. It is unique in that it is a moving platform - like in an airport - but has the feel of a space mountain in Disneyworld. There are a lot of twinkling lights that cascade all around as you go from one end to another. We were in this tunnel the other day because I needed to take photos for the weekly challenge and I though this spot could work for the “dreamscape” subject matter. Although I didn’t use one of these photos it was interesting to play with the filters and crops and try to make it to something a little interesting. We haven’t been through the underground Capitol Hill tunnels for obvious reasons lately. Hopefully we will be able to do it again soon. We miss our old activities - even the tunnels. 

National Gallery of Art Poncho, Tunnel, Waterfall and Lunch

Most people go to the National Gallery of Art to see the art. We have done that too. But last week after trekking around the tidal basin looking at cherry blossoms, we decided it would be a nice idea to stop in for lunch. So we did. We entered at the modern art building and took the stairs down to the tunnel that takes you to the food court/cafeteria. It’s like going through space mountain with all the twinkling lights in the darkness. We then got our typical soup and sandwich and sat down and observed our surroundings. One of the prettiest sights is the waterfall the cascades down the side of the window from the fountain above. Then I remembered spotting plastic rain ponchos at the shop last year while my cousin was here visiting. They would be nice to put in the car in the event of an unexpected downpour. So we made our purchase and then headed out the way we came in. So of course there was a huge glass window that is great for taking reflection shots - so I made my husband stop for a minute to catch one with the blooming magnolias in the background. When all was said and done we put in about five miles of walking. That far exceeds our daily 2.4 miles. Luckily it doesn’t happen that frequently but it was a lovely outing.