Baby, It's Cold Outside!

It was cold today and the stiff wind made it a bitter cold as my sister and I ventured downtown to meet Ben at the National Geographic Building. She had cleverly planned ahead and got coveted Christmas week tickets to see the popular exhibit of the Terra Cotta warriors that guarded the burial tomb of the first emperor of China, Qin Shi Huandgl. The army itself consists of 7,000 life-size clay figures discovered in 1974. 1,000 have been excavated and fifteen were shipped to the U.S. for this exhibit. We enjoyed seeing them but agreed that it was the large scale photographs of the army en masse at the excavation site that best conveyed the overwhelming size of this enormous clay army. One of these photographs was hung outside of the building and you can see it behind Ben in the snapshot above. Click on it to enlarge it and see how big those figures are. An entertaining overview of the exhibit can be found online here.

We walked up a few blocks in the freezing cold wind for lunch at the Tabard Inn, which is quickly becoming a real favorite. On this visit I noticed the details in the stairway hall, including a striking shade of green paint, glass blocks to let in light, and decorative tin on the floor and stair steps.