Started the day at the Faro Cafe (the best coffee in Harvard, according to my friend). The coffee was good, and the cafe definitely had a vibe.
Mini-Vacation In Boston Day 2: Art And Coffee
Tag: museum
Mini-Vacation in Boston Day 1 – Afternoon
After the Isabella Gardner museum, we went to the Massachuset Fine Arts Museum:
I am trying not to post too many artworks because my amateur photos do not do them any justice, but since I can’t talk about these artworks without showing them, I tend to post too many:). The picture below struck me, and when I read the story, it struck me even more.
And then to a Korean place for more desserts:
Mini-Vacation In Boston, Day 1 Morning
The first day went just perfect! The building where my friend live has a great gym
We went for breakfast to Tatte:
And then to the Isabella Gardner Museum:
Field Museum Members Night!
it was the first time that we attended the member’s nigh with both Nadia and Kira! If was a very long day for them even though Anna took them out of school earlier, but we had tons of fun!
the event was extremely crowded, and there were so many things to do that we had to decide what’s the most important things we want, and not even try to cover everything. Before heading to the FIeld museum, they stopped at my work, had som efood and took the whole bag of snacks with them. It was a great idea, because the line to the cafe was very long, and we would waste a lot of time if we would decide to eat there.
We spent more than three hours at the museum (I didn’t think the girls would last more than two!). The highlight of the event was a visit to the mammal preparation lab, where they do taxidermy. That was the only lab for which we needed advanced tickets and the only one where you could not take pictures. The toxidermists were demonstrating how they skin a lioness!!!
There were many other interesting activities and stations where the scientists explained what they work on, or just explained some interesting facts. Nadia liked the station “Mammals are sick,” where the scientists explained how they can diagnost the diseases of the extinct animals by examining their bones.
One fun fact I didn’t know – different animals have blood of different colors, and pretty much all possible colors can be found in nature!
Saturday In Chicago
Anna and her Family visited me this weekend. They arrived on Friday night. On Saturday morning, we had a little kids’ concert, then we went to the Art Institute and Millennium Park and had dinner at my house.
I think it was one of the best Chicago weekends we had so far. This time, Kira actually sat and listened to the concert and was engaged all the time. Also, it was almost the first time when she wanted to see the exhibits before rushing to Ryan’s center. The projects that they had at Ryan’s center this time were probably the best we ever made: creating your own miniature rooms.
Anna said right away that she wanted to make her own project, too, not just helping the girls, so I ended up helping everyone:). It was a very fun project, indeed. Anna told Nadia that adults rarely do crafts, and Nadia asked why. We had to admit that there are no good reasons not to do them (and, in fact, some adults do quite a bit!).
Here is the music room Anna crafted (with a little bit of my help :))
Some other people’s crafts:
Norman Simon Museum
One of my old friends, with whom we unintentionally fell out of touch about ten years ago, lives very close to Pasadena, and I messaged her on my way to the conference. To my delight, she immediately responded, and we agreed to meet. We ended up meeting twice: on Friday night, when we mostly talked, and on Saturday night, when we went to the Norton Simon Art Museum.
The museum is incredible – the whole collection was put together by one person, and although relatively small, it contains an amazing selection of the finest works of world art. I also quite enjoyed reading the annotations to the artworks: detailed, clever, thought-provoking. I didn’t even notice the time when we were informed that museum was about to close.
Just a couple of artworks to illustrate my point: in an hour and a half, a complete history of European art from 13th to 20th century is unfolding in front of you, and each major trend and style is covered. I recall this visit and smile 🙂
National Art Gallery
To say the weather in DC was bad is not enough. It was the worst you could imagine! There was pouring rain all Saturday, so we had to change our plans and head to the museums. Unfortunately, we were not alone: everybody who came to DC for a weekend, did the same, so there were crowds everywhere.
Boris and I headed to the National Gallery of Arts. The first thing we saw there was an exhibit of German Expressionism.
We stopped by Cauguin an Van Gogh, because you can’t pass them, and then we saw the Flemish collection.
Unfortunately, the side effect of all museums in DC being free is the requirement to get passes in advance, and since we didn’t plan for it, we couldn’t get into many of them. Once again, something for the next time!
Titanic Exhibit
Last Sunday was a very special day for me – I had a reunion with my very special friend, with whom we hadn’t met in person since the start of the pandemic.
It was never easy for N. and I to meet even before that due to our insane work schedules and living far away from each other, but before the pandemic, we tried our best to meet once a month. Then, we had to isolate, and then life just took over.
I am infinitely happy and infinitely grateful to my friend for keeping our friendship alive through almost four years, and even more grateful that we had a chance to spend several hours together.
For our reunion, N. suggested we go to see the Titanic exhibit in Skokie, and I was happy to do that. The exhibit was totally worth it, presenting a wide range of historical facts, lots of artifacts, photographs presenting how life on Titanic looked like, and even a recreation of some ship’s cabins. I didn’t take that many photos, because I was absorbed in the experience, but I still ended up with a lot of them!
Musical Instruments Museum
Boris and I visited this museum when we were in Brussels for the first time. It was our favorite then, and this time, Boris voted to spend as much time in this museum as we could. The best part of this museum is that you can listen to the recordings of almost all of the instruments that are on display. It’s overwhelming :). At some point, you simply can’t take in more, but you also can’t stop.
The thing that impressed me most is how many different kinds of music and musical instruments exist in the world and how little we know outside of our European experience.
Since there is no way to reproduce all the sounds we heard, tons of pictures.
Radical Clay Exhibit
My friend, who moved from Chicago to Boston last year, was in town last week, and we went to the Art Institute for the Thursday evening hours. We saw an exhibit I hadn’t seen yet – “Radical Clay,” which presented the works of Japanese contemporary female sculptors made of clay/porcelain.
The exhibit is small, but all the artworks are extraordinary! Here are some pictures that I took and some from the official webpage.
Hettie's Reflections 