Museum Hopper

Cincinnati Art Museum

2020-01-26T22:37:00.000-05:00

A couple of weekends ago, I dashed into the Cincinnati Art Museum to see the Treasures of the Spanish World exhibit. The exhibit was created by the Hispanic Society and very clearly, the descriptions were written by the Hispanic Society. The exhibit spanned the typical exhibit hall and then also one of the other halls sometimes used for exhibit too.

With my annual membership, I had free admission to the exhibit.

The exhibits starts much further back than expected, which if I had read the description closely, I would have known. It focuses on the holistic Iberian peninsula. The exhibit is set up chronologically and has a mixture of art mediums. The exhibit had descriptions of the art in both English and Spanish. As i mentioned earlier, the descriptions were definitely written by the Hispanic Society as a few of them were quite complimentary about their collection and its possessions.

So I did end up taking a bunch of photos during the exhibit.

A miniature of a crypt

Miniature by El Greco-- one of the few that is known to be done by him

Clearly another El Greco -- painting of St. Jerome, one of his favorite subjects

Unclear who this painting is of, but it is done by Diego Rodriguez. It likely was someone close to him personally -- potentially even a granddaughter.

I also really loved these old maps -- one of them was made by Giovanni Vespucci, the nephew of Amerigo Vespucci. He made this map just before he died, 1526, with the whole world as it was known at the time. You can see the resemblances to the world as we know it today -- almost 500 years earlier!

I love this more modern, impressionist painting. It is actually of Charles Lewis Tiffany.

This one is by the same artist as well. I love how free this one feels. It has the proportions of a Greek or ROman goddess, but with the casual attitude of bathing on the beach.

Last but not least though. Honestly, I think this was the strongest piece of the entire collection. They have The Black Duchess by Goya.

Her husband had died the year before, so she is in mourning clothes. Goya did a series of paintings of the Duchess. Also if you look closer in the painting, you see this little detail...

What does that imply?!

This was a fun exhibit! I was happy I was able to make it to visit!

Time in museum: 1 hr
Times visited: 12
Overall: B+

Art Institute of Chicago

2020-01-01T20:08:00.000-05:00

I had a quick, less than 48 hrs in Chicago a few weeks ago for a work session. I may have done my best to make sure that when I was in town I could head to the Art Institute of Chicago with the sole purpose of going to the Warhol exhibit. I saw that I had just missed it in NYC and was excited to see that it was in Chicago! If I had not been able to make it on a work trip, I probably would be trying to squeeze in a weekend trip!

I walked there directly after work and checked in my bags. I did wait about 20 minutes in line to get my tickets. Once I had my tickets, I bee-lined directly to the exhibit, which was in the back of the museum to the right. The exhibit, Andy Warhol -- From A to B and Back Again, was the first time in decades a single focused exhibit has been done on Warhol. Honestly, I did not know much about him.

The entrance to the exhibit shows some of the vast collection of portraits that he did. It set the stage for the rest of the exhibit.

The exhibit is set up chronologically. It starts with some of his earlier work, which included art from when he was in school. This piece below was transposed through drawing on one side, pressing it and then covering it in gold leaf. You can also see on the right hand side of the picture one of his sketches that was published in a news publication aligned with an article.

The exhibit then moved into some of the art that you are most familiar with! The exhibit also had the classic Campbell's soup cans and some of his other screen prints.

I did not get a great feel for what drew him to doing all the portraits other than it was available to him and he used portraits to portray a number of different elements. He would even sometimes use himself as a model.

Self portrait of Andy Warhol

The exhibit had two of his more famous prints as well -- Mao and Marilyn Monroe. The Mao painting in particular was done after Mao had been named Time Man of the Year. It was based off of picture of Mao -- Warhol never met Mao in person.

There were a few drawings, paintings that would be rated higher than PG in the exhibit. Warhol was quite interested in feet with shoes being publically displayed, but he also did a number of more personal sketches of bare feet. The shoe paintings are fairly famous -- I had a set of stationery with them printed on them about a decade ago.

Warhol shoes

The exhibit also has a set of even more personal sketches/paintings that you may want to shield small eyes from.

Near the end of the exhibit, there was a painting of the Last Supper with camouflage. I had not realized that Warhol was Catholic. The audio recording also implied that Warhol said that you do not have to look beyond the obvious to understand what he was trying to communicate. When I apply that to the painting below, it brings some interesting messages. This was the only painting that I am aware of that had a Catholic undertone to it.

I was a little surprised at the scale of the exhibit -- I really did not spend time elsewhere in the museum minus a few drive-bys to see some classics on the way out of the museum.

A good visit! I am very happy I went to see it!

Time spent in museum: ~2 hrs (with about 20 minutes of that waiting in line to buy tickets)
Times visited: 3
Overall: A-

Cincinnati Museum Center

2019-11-17T17:13:00.001-05:00

A few weeks ago Jason and I attended a Night at the Museum at the Cincinnati Museum Center with the University of Michigan Alumni Association. We had not been to the museum since it had been finished, so we were very excited about this invite.

The museum had been under construction since we moved to Cincinnati, but did finish about a year ago. It was an extensive renovation – from what we understand costing significant dollars and was over two years. They restored fundamentals in the building and also revamped also the exhibits. They even uncovered additional space that could be utilized for additional exhibit capacity.

U of M had brought in three different sets of faculty to provide short lectures in three of the key areas within the museum.

To start, we headed to the Dinosaur Hall to learn about fossils that had been found near the Licking River in the early 1700s. The professor brought up a set of bones that had been found and brought to the King of France. Once in France, they sat in a warehouse for some time before a precocious, young scientist found them. From them, he deduced the theory of extinction. The idea that an animal type may not be around forever. That's pretty powerful...and came from the Ohio/Kentucky river valley based on woolly mammoth bones.

The next stop was through the Neil Armstrong Space Exploration Gallery -- particularly relevant given the 50th moon landing this year and Ohio is a proud "space state." A very popular Professor at U of M was an astronaut, Professor Tony England. He was part of the second/third wave of Astronauts when NASA was looking for scientists to go to space. He answered questions about his thoughts on the current space program and changes since he was up in space. I never was able to take his class, but I definitely know who he is and always heard such wonderful things.

After this speech, we headed up to the the Nancy and David Wolf Holocaust and Humanity Center. The Cincinnati Museum Center was actually a familiar spot for refugees to come through on their way to other parts of the US post-World War II. One of the Professors in the School of Music has been researching what this music sounded like. Pictures exist of the bands/orchestras in various concentration camps. The collection of instruments is quite unique. The music is similar to the popular songs of the days and often quite "uplifting." Listening to a version of that they recorded, it is quite macabre. She has found that the music was primarily used to encourage/force the prisoners to march in unison. The manuscripts were not always written correctly, so they have been doing a massive effort to rectify the scores. before the music can be performed.

After this session, we were able to wander the museum briefly before it closed. We clearly headed to the Destination Moon: The Apollo 11 Mission exhibit. It has the command module from Columbia! I really liked getting a sense of the scale of the module. They also had a number of photographs from the moon.

Overall, it was a really great night.

Time in museum: 3 hrs

Times visited: 3

Overall: B+

Morgan Library

2019-11-03T00:05:00.002-04:00

I was in a suburb of New York City two weeks ago and had to get to the Morgan Library. It has been a number of years since I have been able to make it there and it is probably my favorite place in New York. This aptly was visit #10!

It is peaceful and full of light in the museum. It was busy in there, but still quiet. I continue to love how elegantly the museum meshed contemporary with the traditional elements.

Not sure if you can see it, but the grates are full of birds

I focused on my visit on three major exhibits: John Singer Sargent: Portraits in Charcoal, Verdi: Creating Otello and Falstaff-Highlights from the Ricordi Archives, and the main library wing.

I really like the John Singer Sargent oil painting portraits. He is quite well known for these paintings that he completed in the early portion of the 1900s including many of the souls and their children. He painted so many famous people of that time period. He ended up switching to charcoal because it was faster and he could complete sketches of sitters much faster.

He was also painting murals at this same time. The sketches were done between England and New England/Boston/New York.

The Verdi exhibit was fascinating. I knew a little about Verdi and his fame writing Aida. He then went into "retirement." It turns out that a successful publisher was able to pull Verdi "back into the game" TWICE!

The contract that Verdi signed is the top line

This exhibit focuses on these last two operas. It was full of multi-media elements from the opera -- early manuscripts, costumes, theater backdrops, and contracts. Most composers had stayed away from Shakespeare based operas after the success of a few others.

Original manuscript with the printing press plates

Final printed version

I had not seen the completed library since the renovation. The main library/office (where he conducted business) is beautiful - it feels like a Renaissance king could have lived there. I could spend hours in the book library on the other side of the hall. The fireplace is a massive job -- and the books!

It puts the library in Beauty and the Beast to shame. I could just look at all the books he purchased for hours.

The Gutenberg Bible continues to be a crown jewel of the collection.

It also has a fantastic gift shop. I picked up a few items for my sisters' and mother's Christmas stocking!

Times visited: 10
Time in museum: ~1.75 hrs
Overall: A

Pachacamac

2019-09-15T22:34:00.000-04:00

Over Labor Day, I headed to Lima, Peru to visit my sister, her husband, my nephew and my niece. My niece and nephew had the day off school, so we headed south of the city to check out Pachacamac. It was about an hour south of the city although we hit traffic so it usually would be a little shorter. The site is just off the Pacific Ocean.

The site is named after the "earth god" Pacha Makaq, which is a god we heard a lot about when we were in the Sacred Valley. It was started before the Incan period, but they continued to operate throughout the Incan empire. It continued as both a temple and an administrative center.

The ruins were first discovered in the 1890s.

The museum was re-done about three years ago. Excellently, I might add.

We headed out to the ruins first, but I think you might want to check out the museum first. I may also feel like that because our tour guide spoke Spanish and while I understood some of it, I am sure I did not catch it all. The guide was great with Tula and Tomas and she definitely kept things moving.

The site is HUGE.  You drive up to the museum -- we ended up then driving around the grounds, getting out of the car and walking around the Temple of the Sun. As with most other ruins, the sun god had the most prominent template at the very top of the hill.

The terraces on this were beautiful. They used this for sources of water

The east side of the temple is better preserved than the other sides as it did not face the ocean.

Look at us after the walk around the temple. The kids did really well.

We then headed to the museum. It was wonderful. It was so well done and edited. It was a mix of displayed objects and multi-media. It had a video about the origin of the temple. Most of the captions were in English and Spanish.

Double bird pot - one of the best example I have seen

I am so happy we went. Christy needs to go back!

Times visited: 1
Time on site: 2 hr
Overall: A-

Detroit Science Center

2019-08-15T22:18:00.001-04:00

A few weeks ago, we were visiting my parents while my sister, niece (4.5) and nephew (6.5) were in town. On the anniversary of Apollo 11, we headed to the Detroit Science Center.

We chose to head downtown -- with my nephew so excited. Obviously. It turns out that the museum was free for the month sponsored in honor of Apollo.

We headed to the basement first. We did a lot of playing with pulleys and magnets and lights and gears. They had a lot of fun with a 500 lb with the pulley. Depending on where the pulleys are, the weight "feels" different -- they thought that was amazing.

They had water rockets -- unfortunately, one of them did not seal as well as the other one. It seemed like there were a number of exhibits that were just not quite right. Some of the gears had been stripped in one exhibit. Another one, when you pressed the buttons, nothing happened.

We did end up going to the science show. We (my sisters) thought it started a little slow. They did an experiment about the vacuum and it was not ideal....when it could have been so cool. It did end with a fog drum at the end of show. That was impressive. As she hit the bottom of the trash can, she sent out fog signals.

We then headed upstairs to the "road" portion. It had a revolving inside (it wasn't a cement truck, but it was something like that). Tomas did that thing about fifteen times. Up, in, down and around. The exhibit behind it though...it was rough. Screens were not working.

We would definitely go back, but it seems like it could use a little TLC. Some of my family even thought this should maybe be a B-.

Times visited: 2
Time in museum: 2 hrs
Overall: B

Cincinnati Art Museum

2019-08-13T22:39:00.000-04:00

While my sister was here, we also headed to the Cincinnati Art Museum. She had never been and heard my mom talk about how much she liked the Art Museum here.

We started our visit out by getting brunch at the Terrace Cafe. I had made a reservation. I like heading there first and then going into the exhibit; I find that you miss more of the "right as it opens" crowds.

We had two missions this Saturday -- review the Burning Man and Kimono exhibits!

I was so excited to see the No Spectators: the Art of Burning Man. As my sister pointed out, this is probably the closest either of us will ever get to it, so it was time to soak it all in. The exhibit was spread throughout the museum, so the crowds were not too concentrated. I had some idea what an "ethos" Burning Man was, but whoa. It has its own rules, patches and clubs.

Some of the engineering items were very cool. I liked the lighting elements. This room was really cool; how they used light and cut-outs.

You could actually climb into into one of these. They were made with metal and fell into the category of "bring gifts."

This bike is used to get around the festival site.

They also festival armour with serious futuristic vibes. They were interesting mixes of weather coverage for the hot days and cold nights with harsh winds.

We also headed to the latest exhibit, Kimono: Refashioning Contemporary Style. I got tickets with my museum membership. We picked them up when we arrived. The exhibit focuses on the evolution of the kimono from ~1800 to now. The premise is basically the start of when Japan opened up to the outside world and the fashion of the kimono was exposed to western civilization. I was impressed by how much of the collection was actually the Cincinnati Art Museum's fashion. They had some gorgeous Coco Chanel pieces. You could see how the kimono sash influenced a number of the dresses. The embroidery and motifs also heavily influenced Europe and American fashion. They even had modern couture -- Sarah Burton for Alexander McQueen and Iris van Herpen (whose work has been shown before at CAM -- I recognized this right away!). Unfortunately no photos allowed!

Time in museum: 2.5 hrs
Times visited: 11
Overall: B+

Cincinnati Contemporary Arts Center

2019-08-11T18:52:00.001-04:00

My sister came and visited over the Fourth of July holiday. The day after, we headed to the Cincinnati Contemporary Arts Center. We parked at work and walked over.

The museum is free to get into. We headed all the way up to check the children's room first. It seemed like it would be a good stop with kids -- they had different stations set up.

We then headed downstairs to the exhibit, Creatures: When Species Meet. What an interesting exhibit. So, it definitely did not seem to be vegan friendly. Animals were involved in the creation of art. (Also it seemed like it was a lot of glitter in this exhibit -- a surprising amount). Some of it was really cool -- some of it was definitely on the odder end of the spectrum. I really liked the "art nests." The artist left interesting materials around for the birds to make into nests.

This was an aquarium with fish -- the water is tested daily and they even shift the lights to mimic natural light rhythms.

They also elephant trunk art. The elephants put paint on their trunks and then they go and put it on a large canvas. The proceeds from the sale of the canvases go to support elephant sanctuaries.

The panther movie was something -- I am not sure how I felt about that -- again, was it really art?

Same with the movie called Mules. Two mules were tied together. One of the mules had a sack of white powder tied to its saddle. Then the movie just watches the mules on the move. It made me a little carsick. The camera was tied to their backs although they had a few different angles (maybe a drone?) -- ehh, that's ok.

I do really like their gift shop. I have not eaten at their new restaurant yet, but I did like the one that was there.

Times visited: 1
Time in museum: 45 minutes
Overall: B

Quinta da Regaleira

2019-08-11T15:36:00.004-04:00

Our last visit in Sintra was to the Quinta da Regaleira. This was outside of the park system that the Mouros and Pena were a part of. It is though considered part of the UNESCO heritage site.

Parking here proved to be the most challenging aspect of this visit. There was a small parking lot close to the entrance that was full – otherwise, it was one way streets with very limited street parking. We had to do a loop twice to end up finding a spot – and had a bit of walk to the entrance (which was fine). We bought tickets to this when we arrived around 1 pm. I think we looked to buy tickets in advance, but could not find how to do it. The gardens were busy, but definitely not over-crowded. We were able to get tickets right away.

Then into the gardens to try to figure out where to go first. I do wish they had given more of a path or guided route. The signage was not great, so it was hard to make sure we hit the high notes.

The gardens/land invoke gothic, Roman, Renaissance styles. It somewhat reminded me of some of the Japanese gardens we have seen, not that they were similar in style at all, BUT the Japanese gardens emphasize that every time you turn a corner, you get a new view. This garden had those elements. It felt a little disorganized, but somehow all fit together. Per Wikipedia, “the woods are neatly arranged in the lower parts of the estate, but are left wild and disorganized in the upper parts, reflecting Moneiro’s belief in primitivism.” So, seems like I am not the only one with that impression.

We spent most of our time walking through the gardens with no time spent in the palace and chapel. The Initiation Well was really cool. They were never used for actually storing water, but had some ceremonial rituals occur in them. They were rather beautiful and you could tell were very thoughtfully designed. Based on our reading, they were likely linked to Tarot mysticism! From the bottom of the well, it flowed directly into another part of the estate (which is why I wished there had been more of a guided path – you sometimes popped out in places that you did not expect).

We ended up getting lunch here, two sandwiches and some chips. It was surprisingly quick and delicious. it might have also been delicious because we were starving. I should have gotten a second sandwich.

I wish we had more time to fully explore this. I think it was enchanting and mystical.

Times visited: 1
Time in gardens: 1 hr
Overall: A-

Palace of Pena

2019-08-10T17:44:00.001-04:00

After visiting the Castelo dos Mouros, we headed to the Palace of Pena.

As I look back on this trip, we should have considered flopping these...potentially. While we were able to get on the bus right away up to the palace, we ended up in a 30 minute line to get inside the palace. We had bought tickets in advance -- through the same site we bought the Castelo dos Mouros tickets. I am not sure if we had gotten there earlier, would we have been able to avoid the line.

To get up to the palace, we ended up purchasing the bus ticket. It was about 2-3 EUR each and included a round trip up to the palace and back. The buses seemed to be coming rather frequently. After just climbing up to the Mouros, it was nice to sit on the bus for the fairly steep climb up to the Palace of Pena. We did not use the bus on the way back, opting to walk down instead. I was pretty pleased with that decision.

Jason waited in line and let me get out of the sun and rest my ankles for some of it. That being said, it was also a good opportunity to look at the outside of the buildings, which are pretty spectacular. The building had undergone a massive renovation fairly recently restoring the buildings to their original colors.

We saw this beautiful grotto while waiting in line.

We finally got inside. They were limiting the number of people inside, but seriously was still pretty busy. I could tell why they were limiting the number of people in - you could really only peek into rooms from the hallway, so it was hard to get a lot of people through.

Gorgeous courtyard within the palace -- look at that ornate fountain

About halfway through the tour of the house, we got to go out on a balcony for some new views of the palace.

I could go on and on about the tile within the building. It was really well worth the wait. The combination of Moorish and baroque styles was impressively over the top.

We ended up walking down the hill to the exit. The park was really pretty. Jason had to see the duck pond! We ended up leaving the park not where we came in...so I did not get a chance to investigate the gift shop, unfortunately.

Times visited: 1
Time in castle: 2 hrs
Overall: A

Castelo dos Mouros

2019-08-04T21:08:00.003-04:00

So, I feel like I only have the hardest posts left from our vacation. Our first stop in Sintra was to Castelo dos Mouros. We bough tickets in advance.

We ended up driving to Sintra. We had our luggage with us, so it was definitely more convenient. We were able to park fairly close to the entrance getting there a little bit before it opened.

We were the first people in there. It was a good start to the day with a climb. He let us in a few minutes early and up we went.

The fog added a really cool element. From one end of the towers, you can see the Palace of Pena.

It's orange glow was visible. You could also barely the Palace of Sintra. We did not end up going to the Palace of Sintra. You can see the little white cylinders.

The views of they valley were really pretty.

You could see all the way to Lisbon.

We just would have considered swapping it after seeing the crowds at Pena.

Times visited: 1
Time in monument: 1 hr
Overall: A-

Guggenheim Museum Bilbao

2019-07-27T17:06:00.001-04:00

One of the few tickets we bought in advance for this trip was for the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao. What a beauty. A piece of art in of itself.

Let me start with the outside, which has a number of statues and the building itself. As we walked up to the building, we were greeted by the terrier of flowers. It was fairly stunning at five floors high. When you get up close, how the flowers and colors come together.

I saw her sibling in Tokyo in Roppongi Tower

Getting into the museum, it was the smoothest entrance we had been in. They have plenty of workers there handing out the headsets and checking tickets. We got there as it was opening and headed immediately up to the top.

The Jenny Holzer: Thing Indescrible exhibit was/is hard to forget. I am not sure how much I would consider it art though. It was thought provoking and we did spend some serious time thinking about it. The scale of some of her work was stunning. I can only imagine the impact that they would have had when they were first released in public.

We did eat lunch there and it was quite delicious. It had a mix of pinchos, sandwiches, salads. Jason had the local microbrew, which he did enjoy. My ham and cheese sandwich was good and filling.

Seeing some of the other statues outside of the building were quite beautiful too. The views along the river were beautiful. After this museum opened in Bilbao, the press pushed and actually has credited the museum with helping revitalize Bilbao.

Times visited: 1
Time in museum: 3 hrs
Overall: A-

Se Cathedral

2019-07-13T21:17:00.001-04:00

After Castelo de San Jorge, we started walking down the hill. We bopped into the Se Cathedral in Lisbon. It had survived so many earthquakes and fires.

This church is adjacent to where St. Anthony was born and grew up.

This was a quick nice stop to escape the heat in the day. It is beautiful.

Time in cathedral: ~30 minutes
Times visited: 1
Overall: B+

Castelo de San Jorge

2019-07-13T13:55:00.000-04:00

On day 2 in Lisbon, we headed up (literally up the hill) to the Castelo de San Jorge.

We were maybe going to take the trolley up the hill, but there was a queue of ~1.5 hrs. After our experience the day earlier, I was definitely not doing that again. We found an escalator that took us about six flights and then we walked....up.

We should have bought tickets in advance. We ended up waiting in line for tickets for about 15 minutes. That being said, once we were inside, it did not seem very crowded or busy (other than the women's bathroom line -- more about that later).

The view from the Castelo is really pretty. It is a great view of the city and the Castelo itself is iconic in the skyline of Lisbon.

I was underwhelmed by the museum -- it was a lot of pottery fragments. I did like the few plates, pots that seemed more complete. The influence of the Moors is very prevalent/obvious in the tile.

We enjoyed look at t the walls, and learning more about what the castle was used for in the past.

They need more women's bathrooms -- period. Definitely worth keeping that in mind. They only had about six in the whole place. Seems like an issue.

Times visited: 1
Time in Castelo: 2 hrs
Overall: B+

Belem Tower

2019-07-07T21:54:00.003-04:00

After our visit to the Jeronimos Monastery, we walked over to the Belem Tower, a former watch tower and welcoming point to Lisbon from the Atlantic.

We waited in line to get in about 30 minutes. You could get in a shorter line if you had bought the Lisbon card. From what we could tell, it was not worth it for us. Unfortunately, that was the only way though to pre-buy tickets to Belem, so we ended up having to wait in line.

This was another monument that also was recommended to visit close to dusk. I bet the light into the tower is quite pretty coming in from the east side.

We headed in and up to the first level first. Again, it was so nice to be outside after the flight.

View of the tower from the first floor

We really were impressed by the stair system in the tower! It beeps and has colors indicating if you can go up or down at a certain time. There is a timer as well. It is brilliant and solves so many of the problems in old tower buildings.

This definitely seems like the best place in Lisbon for iconic photography.

Worth it for the insta'! We liked learning about the tower and getting close to the Moorish architecture.

Time in tower: 1.5 hrs
Times visited: 1
Overall: A-

Jerónimos Monastery

2019-07-06T16:25:00.002-04:00

Our first visit in Lisbon was to the Jerónimos Monastery. We had a few missteps on our way there -- it took way longer than it should have! What a beautiful spot for our first stop (and after a "no sleep" flight there).

We did not end up going to the paid section since the queue was long.

The architecture of the building is beautiful with such intricate details. The scale of the building is long and substantial.

The inside of the church was beautiful. Our guide book recommended visiting in mid-afternoon, but unfortunately everything seemed to have that recommendation!

The magnificent ceilings and stained glass were rather stunning. It was busy inside but we were able to see everything we wanted.

What a stunning first stop.

Times visited: 1
Time in monastery: 1 hr
Overall: A-

Terreiro da Sé

2019-06-30T22:33:00.002-04:00

I think I need to get started on these blog posts! I am a bit behind now!

Starting a little out fo order, but we really liked the visit to the Terreiro da Se in Porto! It was the first thing we did in the morning when we woke up our first morning in Porto. We walked the quick couple of blocks to the Se, cathedral of Porto.

We paid the couple of EUR for the visit into the museum. The tile in the museum and around the courtyard was beautiful.

We spent a decent time in the church. You walk in though and it's like WOW!

This was one of so many!

We headed upstairs too (you can see the railing in the picture above).

Courtyard next to the Church

A rare photo outside where my eyes aren't totally shut

From the Church, we zigged and zagged down to the Duoro river to head over to some Port tastings. This was one of the best examples of Portuguese tile we saw while in the country (that was really easy to get to!)

Time in the Church: 1 hr
Times visited: 1
Overall: A-

American Sign Museum

2019-05-05T20:38:00.001-04:00

After lunch, we headed to the American Sign Museum. I had never been and I had heard good things. The museum is over on the west side in the industrial area of town. We have not been over there much.

We used our ArtsWave pass to get a "buy one, get one" tickets. The museum is rather expensive. It was $15 per ticket, which is more expensive than the Art Museum and just about as expensive as the Zoo. It doesn't necessarily have the legacy of either of those institutions.

We arrived around 2:30 and caught the last 30 minutes of the tour. I do recommend trying to catch a tour. Ironically the museum does not have great signage -- or at least, it has a lot of it. That being said, it has a lot of individually labeling, but I liked the tour highlighted the key elements of the museum and tied it together. The tour highlighted the macro trends in signage (who knew such a thing existed). And given my reaction of "who knew such a thing existed" highlights the importance of the larger tour. Other than an exhibit a while ago about signage in Paris at the turn of the century by Toulouse at the Milwaukee Art Museum, I have not seen learned much about signage.

McDonald's sign over 30 feet tall -- you can see that the edits on prices in the top corner

Original GE refrigerator sign

A mold for Coca-Cola bottle that is about five feet tall. The signs went on the top of buildings. The wood form is made of mahogany since it can withstand high temperatures and high pressures

This museum is very focused on American signage and has a little bit of Americana going on. The gift shop has retro signs and some old styled "soda pops."

I see why the museum is considered a hot spot in Cincinnati for after-hours events. It has a really great vibe with the signage and lights.

Times visited: 1
Time in museum: 1.5 hr
Overall: A-

Taft Museum of Art

2019-05-05T16:13:00.003-04:00

Over Easter weekend, we spent a rainy Saturday visiting museums with my parents. First, we headed to the Taft Museum of Art. I figured we would start there while my husband was wrapping up his workout and he could meet up with us later.

We started with the special exhibit, Winslow Homer to Georgia O'Keeffe: American Paintings from the Phillips Collection. It had a beautiful set of paintings. My mother was drawn to the Edward Hopper like a moth to a flame. One of my favorites was this spring painting of Washington Park.

This was one of our favorites as well. The dramatic sea and storms are drawn with the broad brush strokes.

On the trip, we had enough time to go through museum. The rest of the museum is the house of the Taft family. Like the Frick, the Taft family planned on converting the house into a museum. The art is very livable. It even has a Goya -- although they may not have known it was a Goya at the time. It was recently proved to be a study for the Charles IV of Spain and his family. It is a study of his wife, Queen Maria Luisa.

I also really liked this one. I thought it looked familiar and then realized it was the boy from a billboard near the ballpark. In the mural, they replaced the cigar/cigarette with a baseball bat. Interesting replacement!

As usual, the gift shop did not disappoint. My mother really liked it! She ended up getting something for one of her friends.

Times visited: 2
Time in museum: 2.5 hrs
Overall: B+

Newport Aquarium

2019-04-28T15:40:00.000-04:00

We went to the Newport Aquarium on a Sunday rainy afternoon with my husband, his sister and her almost two year old son!

I had not been in a while and we went about two hours before close. It was just the right amount of time.

The aquarium is not cheap -- it is worth making sure that you are in the mood and can spend as much time as you need to there. I think they charge since they are fairly restricted in how many people can be in there. That being said, it feels like it is always crowded.

We followed the path. Our nephew loved splashing in the water at the different exhibits where you could touch the animals. It did remind me of the Finding Dory scene where all the animals hide! The turtles were great and he loved seeing those. He kept pointing out all the fish and their colors. He seemed more engaged at the aquarium than at the zoo. Perhaps the zoo warmed him up? Or getting closer to the animals like you can do at the aquarium was helpful. Not really sure what he enjoyed so much.

The penguins were getting fed while we were there and I could not even get in the room. It is too bad they have not expanded that room to make it even larger.

We really enjoyed our time at the aquarium. It really was the perfect late afternoon activity to get out of the house in the rain. I hope everyone has a chance to visit it!

Time in aquarium: 2 hrs
Times visited: 2
Overall: A-

Cincinnati Zoo

2019-04-12T21:30:00.000-04:00

A few weeks ago, I finally went to the Cincinnati Zoo! It was one of the first nice, non-rainy Saturdays in Cincinnati, so the entire city showed up at the zoo. My sister-in-law and almost two-year-old nephew were here, so it just seemed like destiny.

Unclear if we parked in a zoo lot, but our car was there when we got back, so that's good!

We got there about 2.5 hrs before it closed, but there was still a line to get in.

I feel like we did end up covering most of the zoo. I was a little surprised at how tight the zoo really was. I guess after the Detroit Zoo with its vast acreage, anything seems small. Some of the areas though seemed so small for some of the animals. A number of the animals also did not appear to be out yet...hard to tell if it was still too cold or what it was. Most of the big cats were not for example.

That being said, we really liked the giraffe exhibit. We really liked how they put the feeding posts near the visitors, so you got a great view of the giraffes.

We finally saw Fiona and her mother! How fun! I could not believe how much smaller Fiona still is from her mother!

Kind of obsessed with this baby cat -- not really a baby but a sand cat

We skipped the gift shop as the zoo was closing, so we were hustling out there.

We really enjoyed our visit to the zoo and am looking forward to going back again soon. I hope to get there to see the tulips and the other bulbs!

Time in zoo: 2 hrs
Times visited: 1
Overall: A-

Cincinnati Art Museum

2019-04-07T16:44:00.004-04:00

A few weeks ago, I did a girls afternoon at the Cincinnati Art Museum to see the Paris 1900: City of Entertainment.

We had a delicious brunch at the cafe.

The Paris exhibit does require tickets, but the tickets are just for the day. They do not require a time. I was able to use my annual pass for my ticket -- all included!

I really liked the exhibit. It was in the back two rooms on the second floor. The artifacts were grouped by themes and it was across a variety of mediums (if you will). I liked seeing the jewelry and paintings and sculpture and clothes.

Aren't these paintings beautiful? It's really hard to believe that at the time they were considered so groundbreaking. The use of light in these three paintings was really radiant, in particular the middle one. I love the landscape, too. The blue in that painting is very rich.

Basically this photo is for my husband

I am going to try to go back to the exhibit at least one more time!

Times visited: 10
Time in museum: 2.5 hrs
Overall: B+

Museum of Modern Art

2019-03-30T14:58:00.000-04:00

I happened to be in New York for a quick minute and I ran into Museum of Modern Art. I wanted to revisit some of the classics. MoMA felt like I had never left it other than the entrance moving to a different spot due to construction on the main entrance.

I headed in, got my ticket and headed up to the permanent collection.

These are a few of my favorites. In particular, I love the Van Gogh!

The Matisse is gorgeous. The Monet is beautiful. I continue to think it's a bit of a shame that they squish this collection into such a small physical space within the museum.

Times visited: 9
Time in museum: 45 minutes
Overall: B+

Museo de Arte Precolombino

2019-03-22T22:37:00.000-04:00

We headed to the Museo de Arte Precolombino (MAP) in Cusco after dinner one night. Oh, what a joy! We had seen the Museo Incan earlier that day. The MAP was a breath of fresh air.

The MAP is organized and coordinated by the Museo Larco in Lima as well. It's pedigree shows. The museum is organized with very well edited rooms. The museum is in an old Spanish style with a courtyard inside. If we had planned better, we would have eaten dinner here as well. They have a glassed in restaurant, which had a very cool atmosphere and feeling.

Each room was themed and so well edited. It was open late and night and we were almost the only ones in there.

We could tell that what we were seeing in the museum was truly the best of the collection. The descriptions were very helpful and the right.

I wish I had a little bit more to say, but hopefully the pictures speak for themselves! I would prioritize this museum over any other internal museum visit in Cusco.

Times visited: 1
Time in museum:1 hr
Overall: A

Sacsayhuaman

2019-03-21T20:53:00.001-04:00

Jason planned a trip for us to ride a horse to see Sacsayhuaman and a few of the other Incan ruins near by.

We got picked up from the hotel and drove about 20 minutes to get on our horses!

The real draw to Sacsayhuaman are the impeccably carved stones at the monument. Stones makes you think about 0.5 pounds small rocks. These are boulders, bedrock if you will.

Famous five point stone

Serpent section of wall

The panther paw

The wall is beautiful and massive.

This was another ruin that you can use the pass at. This is really the easiest ruin to visit. Very close to Cusco and an easy drive. You just walk right in!

Times visited: 1
Time at site: 1.5 hrs
Overall: A-