Adventures with Kathy and Bob

It was wonderful having time to spend with Kathy and Bob.  The weather wasn't ideal, quite cold and rainy, making us unmotivated for outdoor walking.  We compensated by doing indoor things, stopping at cafes for hot drinks, and focusing on talking and catching up.

One highlight of the indoor experiences was the Visionary Art Museum in Baltimore where they display creative "outsider" art made by people who generally don't have formal training.  Quite inspirational.

Starting with this fun sculpture outside the front door:

I'm always curious about completely-decorated vehicles, never seen a bus version before:

Secrets on postcards - I think we'd heard about this on a podcast one time, and it was fun seeing some of the actual postcards.  People write their secrets, and in some cases create artwork to go along with them, and anonymously send them to a guy name Frank Warren in Maryland.  It's a fascinating idea and the results are stunning.

I'm not sure how legible these will be in this blog post, but there are more to look at every week on the website:
https://postsecret.com/

The one in the lower right: "I still can't believe you died, so I pretend you are away, on a very long vacation, having the best time ever"

The creativity and the images are intriguing:

Some are really funny, some are beautiful:

We got a huge kick out of the Office Space reference:

Amazing timing, I was checking out the website when I discovered Frank Warren was doing a live event - in San Jose - the very next week.  It was awesome!  He told about the history of his project, stories about particular postcards, pictures of the stacks of mail he has received, suicide prevention advocacy, and ideas about why he thinks people are drawn to this and how it might help to "release" a secret.  So fascinating.

Anyway, back to Baltimore and the fun art at the museum:

I love what people are able to do with found objects:

In the middle of a giant Pez display - yes, of course there are Star Trek figures:

I love the colors and the shapes of these cats:

Another excellent set of cats:

I sense a theme:

Actually, the theme in this section was "Mysteries" which made for some thought-provoking displays.  As you can imagine, Edgar Allen Poe was mentioned more than once.

The mystery to me here is how anyone could spend the incredible amount of time and effort to make this gorgeous dress out of beads:

Fun with mirrors - hi Kathy!

Some Lewis Carroll, of course:

Reminds me of our life on the road:

One of the many things that made me laugh:

With a nod to Tom Hanks around his neck:

Across the way in the larger building we found one of the entrants to the Kinetic Sculpture Race in Baltimore - now that would be something to see someday (and apparently the "world championship" is in Eureka, CA).  Human-powered art that has to travel for miles and deal with obstacles like a steep hill, an obstacle course, and a water crossing.  All while looking amazing:

Almost art - handmade guacamole at an excellent Mexican restaurant for my birthday lunch (thank you Kathy and Bob!):

A quick walk through the National Portrait Gallery where we happened upon this excellent painting of the women of the Supreme Court:

Here's what we were looking for - so beautiful:

An interesting take on a classic painting:

Melinda and Bill look almost lifelike:

Welcome to the Portrait Gallery, Mr. President!

Bob and Kathy took me to a show called "Potted Potter", a Harry Potter parody that covers all 7 books in 70 minutes - fun!  It made us laugh, and it was interesting to note that it was originally written for British audiences so not everything translated exactly.  I think that added to the charm.  Here we are waiting for the show to begin:

Despite the gray coldness of the day, there was a cherry blossom festival in full swing.  Speaking of swings, check out the new pier at the wharf:

We walked around the festival for a bit, exploring the wharf and wondering what this was about:

Trader Joe's!  I've visited a lot of them but I'm still excited anytime I get to go to a new one:

And... it's snowing... just tiny little flakes that you can't see, but they were there, falling gently from the sky.  I was enchanted (having not seen much winter this winter - not complaining!).  Everyone else got really grumpy.  It is April after all, what is up with that?  (feigned indignation)

To console ourselves - another TJ's, yay!  Kathy enjoyed exploring the aisles and finding different kinds of food, and I enjoyed providing some input.

The cherry blossoms were so close to blooming in Kathy's neighborhood!  Every day they would think about it, maybe one tree would decide it was time, but for the most part they seemed to be waiting for the cold spell to pass.  Smart.  This was the best we could do on my last day there, and hey, at least they sun was shining:

Thank you both for a wonderful visit, it was so great to see you!  May we get together again very soon.

Museum of African American History

I scored a ticket to the African American museum!  Who knew a museum could be so popular?  I was finally patient enough with their website on the morning of my long run and snagged a 1:30 pm entry.  Perfect timing - a few hours to run, ending up inside here:

The museum is worth it.  It's well designed, thought-provoking, interesting to people of all ages and backgrounds, and absolutely crammed full of things to see.  There were several things I wanted to find, so I couldn't dawdle on any one floor with only 4 hours to work with.

We Beards seem to appear in unexpected places:

The section on food influences from around the world included a nifty red beans and rice piece:

The hat on this sculpture from Nigeria inspired the building design:

I super enjoyed the music section, build around Chuck Berry's Cadillac:

So many artists filling the space, with stories, photos, and actual items they owned:

The artifacts they collected!  I supposed I shouldn't be surprised, it's the Smithsonian.  For example - here's a pair of shoes from James Brown:

Louis Armstrong's trumpet:

Little Richard's jacket, guitars from Bo Diddley and Chuck Berry, Marian Anderson's dress, outfits from Michael Jackson and Prince, and many more.

Callback to when music came on albums, and a neat way to display a lot of information in a compact form:

Then the movie/TV section, another place to spend a lot of time.  They are showing a bunch of clips from old shows and I managed to catch this from one of my favorites:

Lots of great movies to reference:

One section is an art museum, with this interesting piece that includes wood from President Obama's 2009 inauguration platform:

Ah, here's one of the things I was looking for - it was referenced in a program I saw toward the end of the most recent Olympics that described what happened in Mexico City:

While watching the program in California, I was surprised to learn that there's a similar (much larger, actually) Black Power statue on the San Jose State campus.  Wait, what?  I had run within a block of it previously, so I had to go back and find it.  Quite impressive:

I got a kick out of the sports section.  Carl Lewis's uniform from the 1984 Olympics in LA:

Jackie Joyner-Kersee on a Wheaties box:

Muhammad Ali's Olympic torch and a glove:

Oops, the Williams sisters are a bit fuzzy, I need to go back sometime and get a better photo.

Signed baseballs plus cards for Satchel Paige, Hank Aaron, and Willie Mays:

I started looking for the way down to the lower floors but couldn't find any stairs.  I did find this beautiful contemplation room with a vertical fountain:

It turns out you have to take the elevator down to the bottom level, and that's part of the experience.  The dates on the walls count backwards as you "go back in time" and the feel is like descending into the dark bowels of a ship.

There is a ton of history on the lower floors, as you weave your way through the maze and try to figure out how to climb out.  Amazingly, there is Harriet Tubman's shawl and hymnal on display:

The train car I was looking for - last seen (by us) in 2013 being lowered into the museum before the building was erected.  You can't go inside it yet, but the signs say they are working to open it up eventually:

The guard tower from Angola prison, which we last saw in 2013 as well:

 A lunch counter where everyone (regardless of race) can now sit together and talk:

A training plane from the Tuskegee Airmen:

Good memories:

We might be in this photo (near the Washington Monument) but it would need to be much higher resolution and lots of zooming and enhancing to tell:

Hey, it's Stephen Colbert again!  In this clip he and his guest (whose name I'm not finding) switched seats to talk about ways to learn from each other and continue to have conversations about race in this country:

The museum felt amazing, inspiring, and packed with things to see and read and experience.  I look forward to going back and spending more time there.