Washington DC

July 2012

All Pages of This Report

Washington DC has so many interesting attractions. One of those attractions is, of course, Anne's Aunt Jennifer. We have been wanting to get to the DC area for a while, and finally got there July 2012. Jenn had a short business trip so we were able to combine our visit with pet sitting. Anne was delighted to "have" some house pets for a brief period.

We arrived Monday evening. Jenn's friend Kelly had visited over the weekend, and was kind enough to stay over and give us an overview of caring for the more exotic pets of Jenn's regular pet sitters. More on them a bit later. We will start with a picture of our host, Beau-Beau.

Black cat Beau-Beau lying on a neatly made bed with pale blue bedding and decorative pillows

Tuesday was our first full day on vacation, and we headed out. Crape Myrtle is in bloom in the area, and was lovely as well as common. Here I am showing off the hat I recently inherited from Vanda. You can see we were just along the road, next to a small garden area maintained by the building there (I'm guessing on that).

Woman in a wide white hat standing beside a blooming pink crape myrtle along a Washington street

We walked over to Hillwood Estate and Museum. This is the estate of the late Marjorie Merriweather Post. It has a lovely grounds with various gardens, and numerous decorative art items in the large house. They have an audio tour available for both the house and the gardens. Since it is HOT in Washington, we opted to do the grounds first, in the (slightly) cooler part of the day. The estate is on 25 acres in what was once a suburban area. The grounds are designed as 'rooms', each area with a distinctive style.

The carefully landscaped entrance for Post's guests has a statue of the young Greek god Eros.

Stone statue of Eros standing at the landscaped entrance to Hillwood Estate

Off of the side side of the house is the French Parterre ("a formal garden with low intricate plantings divided by footpaths and surrounded by walls of English ivy"). At one end is a sculpture of the Roman goddess Diana. At the other end, on the house, is a fountain with swans. This garden was recently refurbished, and it looks lovely.

Formal French Parterre garden with clipped hedges and a small central fountain beside the brick house

Marble bust of a woman displayed in the formal garden at Hillwood

Close view of a carved stone swan on the fountain at the end of the French Parterre

Statue of Diana with a dog standing in the garden at Hillwood

The next gardens include a rose garden, a putting green (yes, as in golf), and a 'friendship walk'. That last one was actually a gift from some of Mrs. Post's friends.

Rose garden with bright red blooms and a tall stone column in the center

Woman standing beside an ornate armillary-style sculpture in the garden

There is a large lawn, the crescent shaped Lunar Lawn, immediately in front of the house. Back in the day, they would have actually been able to view the Washington Monument, although at this point the trees have grown too high to allow that from the ground. Our unquestionably favorite part of the grounds was the Japanese-Style Garden. It was on a hill, and worked perfectly with that location. It has the typical elements of flowing water, various plants, strategically placed stones, and a few sculptural items, including a stone lantern and Hotei (that isn't Buddha), a Japanese god of happiness and prosperity. It was designed by landscape architect Shogo Myaida to combine Japanese and American elements.

Japanese-style garden with sculpted shrubs and a curving path on the hillside

Woman crossing round stepping stones through a shallow pool in the Japanese-style garden

Arched wooden bridge over a lily pond in the Japanese-style garden

Wide view of the Japanese-style garden with lily pond, pagoda lantern, and bridges

Stone statue of Hotei smiling among rocks and greenery in the Japanese-style garden

Man standing beside a tall stone pagoda lantern in the Japanese-style garden

Pink water lilies blooming across the surface of the garden pond

Close view of pale pink water lilies floating beneath dark evergreen branches

Rock waterfall and bronze crane sculptures in the Japanese-style garden

Man standing on a small wooden bridge partly hidden by leafy trees in the Japanese-style garden

On the far side of the Lunar Lawn is a little viewing platform that gives tribute to music.

Woman standing between two cherub statues near the music-viewing platform

Small sailboat sundial surrounded by bright pink flowers in the garden

There was a special exhibit 'Prêt-à-Papier: Isabelle de Borchgrave'. This artist creates, or perhaps it is better to say re-creates, clothing using various types of paper. The variety of looks she achieves is impressive. (Sorry, we couldn't take pictures of the gowns but there are some in this picture from Wikipedia.)

We checked out the greenhouse, which has many orchids in addition to a few other types of plants.

Purple and pale pink orchids blooming among lush greenhouse foliage

Inside, there is an emphasis on decorative arts and items associated with people who either produced or acquired (mostly various royalty) these items. There are many Russian items, since she was married to the Russian ambassador.

After our visit at Hillwood, we walked to the Metro station and went to the Smithsonian Natural History Museum. One very important exhibit here:

Museum sign titled Possums Take to the Air describing sugar gliders

One of the two pets that we cared for in the sitter's apartment was a sugar glider. Sugar is cute, small, nocturnal, and fast. The other pet there was a Guinea Pig. Guinea was friendly, talkative, loved attention, and loved his lettuce. We were very taken by Guinea. We don't have a particularly great picture of either of them, but here is a picture of Sugar to give an idea of his size and of Guinea to show his coloring.

Sugar glider peeking over a person's hand inside its cage

Guinea pig eating lettuce inside its cage beside a purple exercise wheel

One other picture I want to share from the museum. You've all heard of sloths, the very slow moving mammal. Well, once upon a time there were really, really big sloths. I took this with a random person standing near it for reference.

Woman standing beside a giant sloth skeleton exhibit in the Smithsonian Natural History Museum

One our way back, we passed the Old Post Office, with Ben standing tall (very tall) outside of it.

Man standing beside the Benjamin Franklin statue in front of the Old Post Office building

All those pictures, and we are just finishing up day 1! Moving on to page 2 ...

Updated April 2026