Sunday morning/afternoon adventure

As I am getting more confident in using the Metro system, I am trying to make trips into DC during the weekend. Last weekend I went to Pentagon City, where there is huge mall but more importantly, there is a World Market nearby (I was craving some Curly Wurlys). Based on a good suggestion from a co-worker, I decided to go to visit the National Gallery this morning (she said Sunday mornings are less crowded). And the Gallery is amazing. The Gallery has such a vast and varied collection from 15th century Dutch artists to Jasper Johns. I went through the Main floor of the West Gallery first and then stopped for lunch at the cafe that is in the concourse between the East and West Galleries and then went to the East Gallery to the see the 2 special exhibits (Gaugin and paintings of Venice) and the Modern Art (the west Gallery has most of the older paintings, through the Impressionist and immediate Post-impressionists, I think that most recent piece I saw was painted in 1939). The Gaugin exhibit was interesting but really crowded so I didn't get to be that close to the paintings. It was not very crowded in the main floor of the West Gallery, mostly because I was there right when it opened. After going through the East Gallery, my last stop was the Chester Dale Collection on the ground floor of the West Gallery. And the Chester Dale collection is great, it has lots of works/sculptures by Impressionists including Degas, Renior, Rodin, Monet, and probably my favorite Van Gogh. It's hard to pick which part was my favorite, I really liked the British/Irish/American rooms (lots of lovely landscapes, before that lots of religious paintings), the really beautiful still-life paintings ( spread out throughout a lot of the rooms), or the Chester Dale Collection. I took lots of pictures of the paintings and you can check them out here (some might be a little fuzzy, sorry about the quality).