Saw You in a Park of a Courtyard: Kogod Courtyard and National Portrait Gallery

We have been trying to fit in a visit to the National Portrait Gallery for some time, but have a hard time because it doesn't open until 11:30 a.m.  During the week, that runs pretty close to the time we have to get Kane from school and on the weekend, 11:30 is a late start for us.  Mom and I popped in yesterday to take a look and ended up spending most of our time in the Kogod Courtyard eating lunch (after spending most of the morning "shopping" in the nearby Forever 21 store waiting for the Portrait Gallery to open).  As far as we're concerned, the Kogod Courtyard and the Courtyard Cafe are a destination in and of themselves.  It's cool, it's quiet, and they serve up grilled cheese and tomato soup.  And there is a pretty neat water feature running the length of the courtyard, too.

We did take a few minutes to check out some of the Portrait Gallery and to run up to the American Art Museum's exhibit on video games (the American Art Museum and the Portrait Gallery share space), which mom wanted to check out for Kane.  She seemed pretty psyched that they had giant Pac-Man and Super Mario Bros. games, but I wasn't interested.  We don't have any video games (although at one point we also didn't used to watch t.v., so there's hope yet), but older kids would probably like this exhibit and parents who grew up in the 80s would get a kick out of it, too.

If you are looking for other activities in the area, the Martin Luther King public library is right across the street and has Baby/Toddler storytime Fridays at 10:30 a.m. and Tales for Twos and Threes Wednesdays at 10:30 a.m.  The Spy Museum is also a stone's throw away if you have older kids and want to spend some dough.  And the Gallery Place/Chinatown metro stop (green/yellow/red lines) is literally right outside the building.

accessories shopping at Forever 21 --  i was pretty psyched about the hot pink 

rubber coin purse and lip chaps i got

waiting for Portrait Gallery to open