Being in Washington D.C. last weekend represented the best of times and the worst of times.

Leaving the uninspiring inauguration aside, I shall focus on the euphoric state we were in when we woke up Sunday morning.

Capitalizing on the rush from the exhilarating Women’s March, my daughter and I hit the ground running.

We headed out around 9…starting point, the White House and the Mall.

All the bleachers and viewing stands from the inauguration were still intact and the streets were littered with rubbish and abandoned Porta Potties.

Perpetually in a New York state of mind, I must say that if this were NY, the city would have been spotless two hours after Trump had made his last awkward salute.

The streets were filled with high school field trips to the inauguration.

Shuffling along were pasty looking, overweight, lethargic kids in red ‘Make America Great Again’ hats…hold me back.

The upside was that the landscape and monuments were decorated with the hundreds of thousands of signs that had been proudly displayed during the Women’s March On Washington.

Hopefully, this gave the teens from the heartland something to think about.

What was obvious was that there certainly are an overabundance of clever women in this already great country.

We passed the White House, walked up to the Washington Monument, along the Tidal Basin to the Lincoln Memorial.

Next stop the Vietnam Veterans Memorial and then across to the Jefferson Memorial.

Famished after the previous day of marching rather than eating, we attempted to have brunch, but everywhere had  a 2 hour wait.

Substituting culture for food and fortified by a double espresso, we perused the contemporary art at the Hirshhorn Museum on the Mall.

Next on the agenda were the sculpture gardens.

I then decided we needed to see the Phillips Collection so off we went to Dupont Circle.

The museum is located in a townhouse in the upscale neighborhood.

We took in the exhibit and then hightailed it to the 14th Street district for a late lunch at the ever popular Le Diplomate from Stephen Starr of Le Coucou, Clocktower, Buddakan, Upland and Morimoto fame.

By this time we had been sightseeing for 8 hours and we needed to kick back and watch football.

Our nation’s capitol hosted contrasting events this past weekend…we were delighted to be a part of the positive side of history.

Hopefully, this country will continue to rise up and heads will roll in the not to distant future.