Day 12. Washington DC: White House. Renwick Gallery. National Museum of African American History and Culture. Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden. National Museum of American Arts & National Portrait Gallery. China Chilcano. [HI Washington DC]
The consequences of partying hard the night before include sleeping in. While planning to get up at 9 am to start my day at the museums as they open at 10 am, I didn’t wake up until 11 am. Pretty much wasted a few hours of the last day that the Smithsonian museums were open.
En Route
My first museum of the day was Renwick Gallery, which Raj said to be ‘the weirdest shit i have ever seen.’
Grabbing a latte at Starbucks for breakfast, I passed by the White House on my way to Renwick. The road in front of the White House was barricaded by police lines and I didn’t know why. Though that meant being further away from the building, it actually provided me some clear shots. As I was leaving, the lines were removed, and I tried to get some pictures on the other side of the street, and ended up having the White House being partially obscured by the railings. For that, I am thankful for the police lines.
Strange Beauty
It was nearly 1 pm when I got to Renwick Gallery, which was just diagonally across from the White House.
At first, I didn’t know what to make of the museum. Everything on display was mysterious and eccentric. And then I suddenly see the beauty of them all. The secrets, pain, liberation, etc. that were brought forth by modern art were breathtaking in there own ways, and viewing from different angles led to different interpretations. I never thought I’d like modern art, and yet here I was, incredibly mesmerised and enthralled. Photographing the art pieces was pure joy as I could convey my perspective via the stills.
Sharif Bey. 
Tanya Aguiñiga 
The Kind is Dead by Dustin Farnsworth. 
The Reconstruction of Saints by Dustin Farnsworth. 
Yelena Filipchuk & Serge Beaulieu.
Black Lives Matter
Leaving Renwick around 2 pm, as it was a very small museum, I wanted to go to Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden next. After checking the map, I realised I would pass by National Museum of African American History and Culture, and now I had to go.
National Christmas Tree. 
Washington Monument.
I reached National Museum of African American History and Culture around 2:30 pm, and started off from the 3rd floor. Throughout the whole museum, there were exhibits of African American celebrities in music, sports, etc., cultural display, and history of fighting for freedom and equality.
During my time walking around the displays, I find myself close to tears on many occasions. The oppression of African Americans was too recent to feel like history, and terrible discriminations still exist today. It was like a continuous reminder of the forever struggle minorities have to face for the 2 hours I was there. I had to leave before I saw the more historic exhibition on concourse level because Hirshhorn closes at 5:30 pm, and it was already well past 4 pm.
Making a way out of no way. 
African Americans in baseball.
MoMA?
Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden is a museum of modern art. Unfortunately, I have never been to MoMA during my two visits of New York City, so I cannot say which one I liked better.
The art at Hirshhorn was mind-blowingly eerie. Compared to Renwick, I’d say it was less of beauty but more of shock. There were a wide variety of art forms, including paintings, sculptures, crafts, films, and interactive technologies. I didn’t have enough time to see everything, but I did manage to see most of them. It was totally worth it albeit a small museum as well.
Untitled (Big Man) (2000) by Ron Mueck. 
In The Infield Was Patty Peccavi (1981) by Edward Kienholz & Nancy Reddin Kienholz, addressing religious attitudes towards birth control. 
Schulklasse (1970) by Inge Mahn. 
Torso of a Young Man (1924) by Constantin Brancusi, resembling both a torso and male sex organ. 
Pickett’s Charge by Mark Bradford. 
Visitor fingerprints at the nteractive technology exhibition ‘Pulse’ by Rafael Lozano-Hemmer.
But I liked Renwick more.
Celebrities
I left Hirshhorn after spending an hour in there as it closed at 5:30 pm. While most Smithsonian museums close at the same time (and I didn’t expect any of them to open the next day due to shutdown), National Museum of American Arts & National Portrait Gallery open until 7 pm.
Because of all the celebrity portraits, I never wanted to miss National Portrait Gallery. I had to speed walk within the museum to make the most out of my 70-minute visit. After being halfway through the 1st floor, I realised that both National Museum of American Arts and National Portrait Gallery are completely connected, and I had probably spent more time than I wanted to in the American Arts section.
Baseball at Night (1934) by Morris Kantor. 
Skating in Central Park (1934) by Agnes Tait. 
Untitled (1987) by blind Hawkins Bolden, featuring many ‘eyes’.
Again, I didn’t even see half the portrait collection due to time constraint, but I saw most of the ones I was looking for. Having underestimated the size and scale of the portrait gallery, I was close to running all over the place, but it was still every enjoyable, as I never knew whose portrait I’d see around the next corner.
Michelle Obama. 
General Douglas MacArthur. 
Sandra Day O’Connor, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Elena Kagan, Sonia Sotomayor. 
George Washington. 
Abraham Lincoln. 
Barack Obama.
Fancy First Meal
While I was walking to the National Portrait Gallery a little over an hour ago, I passed by China Chilcano by José Andrés, a fusion restaurant of Peruvian, Chinese, and Japanese. I decided to try it for dinner and give myself a nice first meal of 2019.
At 7 pm, there were plenty of diners in the spacious restaurant. The interior has a retro vibe, and the lighting was horrible to take pictures. But the atmosphere was good, and I hoped the food would be as well.
Since I already decided to have a hearty dinner, I wanted to give as many things a try as possible. I ordered Peruvian dish Arroz a la Cubana ($13.00 excluding taxes & tips), and some dim sum for side dishes: Kam Lu Wantán ($5.00 excluding taxes & tips) and Tradicional Siu Mai ($5.00 excluding taxes & tips). It was Dim Sum Tuesday today, so the dim sums and some cocktails were a lot cheaper than usual.
Arroz a la Cubana. 
Kam Lu Wantán. 
Tradicional Siu Mai.
Arroz a la Cubana is somewhat like bibimbap, as you need to mix everything together before eating. Mine came with fried egg, Cusco fried rice, sweet plantain, plantain chips, diced potato, tomato, cucumber, raw red onion, cilantro, sprout, salsa criolla. The mixture was awesome, except for the raw onion which I ended up removing. I never knew how good hot fried rice could be with plantain!
Kam Lu Wantán is crispy shrimp-pork dumplings with hoisin-tamarind sauce and furikake. I don’t like fried food in general, but these fried dumplings were divine. The combination of all the ingredients created a rich taste as well as a balanced texture. I would order this dish again. As for Tradicional Siu Mai, it was meagre as being way too salty (even without the sauce) and I wanted to believe that they made a mistake of putting salt twice in the minced meat. Just no. But putting crunched peanuts on top was a clever touch.
I also had a cocktail Chilcano ($7.00 excluding taxes & tips) to go with my meal. It was a nice alcoholic drink with lime flavour in ginger ale. The actual ingredients include Porton La Caravedo, lime, Amargo Chuncho bitters, Fever-Tree ginger ale.
For dessert, I got Ponderaciones de Kiwicha ($10.00 excluding taxes & tips), and it was really good. Another Peruvian dish with crispy fried spiral cookie, Fortunato No. 4 chocolate cream, banana, and Algarrobina ice cream. The cookie tasted a bit similar to biscuit rolls, and the chocolate cream was so good. The banana slices were scorched so the top layer was like that of crème brûlée. Wonderful ending for the lavish meal.
Chilcano. 
Ponderaciones de Kiwicha.
Later, I found out that China Chilcano is on MICHELIN Guide 2019.
Summary
I finished dinner at 8:30 pm and walked back to my hostel. Today was my last day to visit Smithsonian museums as they would be closed starting January 2nd and I don’t believe the shutdown could end in 3 days. There are two that I haven’t visited but were on my list: National Postal Museum and National Museum of the American Indian. Maybe next time, there won’t be a government shutdown.
