Friday, June 29, 2012

Gettin' Some History

My mom and dad came to visit this past week, and we covered A LOT of ground.  We went to St. Michael's and Annapolis, MD, last weekend - and visited the Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum - but you'll have to wait for that review because I took pictures on my mom's camera, forgot to download them, and now the camera is probably somewhere between Wheeling and Zanesville, OH on their trip back home to Iowa.  So, alas, our chronicle of museum visits will be a bit out of order.  


I've wanted to take my dad to the Frank Lloyd Wright-designed Pope-Leighey House since we moved to the DC area seven years ago.  Well, we finally made it.  The house is located south of Washington, DC on Highway 1/Richmond Highway on the grounds of Woodlawn Plantation, which, unfortunately, is currently closed for tours due to an ongoing window restoration project.  You'll need to buy your tickets to the Pope-Leighey House in the Woodlawn gift shop, however, so you'll get at least a little peak inside.    





Mom and Diggory wandering the grounds at Woodlawn.  The public restrooms are under the north wing of the house, just to the left of the portico you see here, and down the stairs.  No changing tables, but very spacious.

If you have time to wander the grounds before your appointed tour time, make sure to check out the vegetable gardens maintained by the Arcadia Center for Sustainable Food and Agriculture.  There's also a chicken coop filled with friendly hens.  



Our tour guide of the Pope-Leighey House was incredibly knowledgeable about the history of the house and how the Usonian design fits into Frank Lloyd Wright's overall architectural career.  Diggory was fairly well behaved and made it through a little more than half of the tour, but since I'd actually toured the house before, we vacated the premises and wandered around outside for a bit, to give mom and dad and the rest of the group a reprieve from Diggory's squealing.  The house itself is a bit of a jaunt from Woodlawn (and the restrooms) but there is a water cooler to quench your thirst - or to provide endless entertainment for the toddler who thinks a paper cup is pretty darn fascinating.


George Washington's Gristmill and Distillery are located about a half mile southeast of Woodlawn on Mount Vernon Memorial Highway, and we just couldn't get that close without visiting.  After you park, stop by the gift shop to buy your tickets - but if you need to visit the restroom before the tour, you'll have to walk back around to the parking lot and down the hill by distillery to the small brick building along the creek.  It's strange, but in this brand new building there aren't any changing tables - not a huge deal, but still, I'm curious why no one thought to install one.  The tour actually starts back around the path at the Gristmill, where one of the interpreters will explain how the mill works, what George used the different milled grains for, and then start up the water wheel to demonstrate how the mill stones grind the grain.  It's loud, but super cool.  



Next, we wandered over to the distillery where another interpreter explained the process of making whiskey, how many barrels George typically produced, and how those barrels were shipped up stream to Alexandria and other points north and south.  On the second level of the distillery, you'll find a small exhibition on whiskey in America.  There is an elevator up to the gallery on the north end (closest to the parking lot) of the building.  Apparently, the whiskey produced here is actually pretty good - but they only distill it twice a year and it's usually sold out within days.  


In the days between our grist mill visit and our sojourn out to Leesburg, Virginia, my mom and dad helped install MORE baby gates, cleaned up our patio and planted new flowers, fixed our doorbell, and generally kept Diggory entertained.  But, once all the work was done, we escaped the big city in favor of the rolling hills of Loudon County.  After lunch with friends in the historic downtown, we stopped at a winery for a quick tasting (because that's what you do in Loudon County), before heading out to Balls Bluff Battlefield Regional Park and National Cemetery.  It's one of the smallest Civil War cemeteries, but it's very nicely done, and the interpretive signs and maps of the battlefield are quite informative.  There are tours on Saturdays and Sundays, apparently, but the self-guided tour brochure seemed plenty educational.  There are several trails through the park, some more "interpretive" than others, but we headed straight to the cemetery and bluff overlooking the Potomac River.



The path isn't terribly stroller friendly, but it's doable.  Plus, when it's 95 degrees outside, you may want to beef up those arm muscles pushing the stroller at your own pace rather than toddling around with your new walker at a snail's pace in the blazing sun.


Grandma and Diggory enjoying some shade at Ball's Bluff National Cemetery.

After our battlefield visit, we decided to take White's Ferry across the Potomac to Poolesville, and circle back to DC via River Road, with a quick stop over at the Great Falls Tavern Visitor Center on the Maryland side of the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal National Historical Park.


Look!  When you're on a ferry, your GPS shows your car in the water!  



Only my graduate school pals and fellow Fall 2006 Museum Administration students will understand why the Poolesville Town Hall and future Poolesville Museum is particularly exciting to see up close and in person.



The museum at the Great Falls Tavern Museum closes at 4:30pm, so we missed seeing the inside by about 25 minutes.  (I guess we'll just have to come back someday!)  There are several interpretive signs along the canal, however, and plenty to look at - including a passenger boat that takes visitors up and down the canal at scheduled times during the day.  The park, as many of you know, is also a recreational haven - and all the bikers, kayaks, and dogs kept Diggory plenty entertained, as did the rocks, gravel, sticks, leaves, bugs, geese, and, of course, Grandma and Grandpa.  The end of our day was punctuated with a pleasantly trouble free commute back to Alexandria through rush hour traffic, and a cold adult beverage on our spruced up patio once we got home.  Mommy and daddy left this morning - but I'll be sure to have a list of historic sites and museums at the ready for the next time they venture back east. 

Tuesday, June 19, 2012

Ladder of Escape

Last Friday, Diggory and I ventured downtown to meet my friend (and willing cat sitter) Colleen for lunch at the National Gallery of Art Sculpture Garden.  The weather was nice, not too, too, hot, and many other tourists and locals were enjoying the sunshine out and about in the garden.  Diggory and I had a few moments to wander the paths and check out the art and fountain before settling down inside with Colleen for salads and ice tea.  

After lunch, we entered the National Gallery's West Building via the handicap-accessible entrance at Sixth Street and Constitution Avenue.  We headed straight to the exhibition Joan Miro: Ladder of Escape, on view through August 12, 2012.  (Here is a longer description of the exhibition and images of highlighted works.)  So, in a way, this isn't going to be a thorough museum review...we only had Colleen's lunch break to explore...but, the exhibition was really fascinating and I can describe (briefly, so as to not totally bore you) how we got from the West Building basement to the East Building Mezzanine with a stroller. 

So, if you are in the West Building and you need to get to the East Building (without going outside), and once you're on the ground floor, navigate your way through the Garden Cafe and the West Building gift shop toward the Fourth Street Plaza entrance.  You'll encounter a set of stairs, so take the elevator up one level to get to the lobby with the security desk.  Immediately to your left, and across the hallway, you'll see another set of elevators, which you'll have to take down to the Concourse level (of the East Building).  Turn left out of the elevator and walk through the children's gift shop, bookstore, Cascade Cafe, and gelato bar.  If you need it, there's a large bathroom with a changing table just after the long spectacularly lit hallway with the moving walkways.  From here it can be a bit tricky to navigate with a stroller.  We entered the auditorium lobby and took the very large elevator up to the mezzanine level, where the exhibition starts.  


The exhibition itself is really quite well done, and covers Miro's career in its entirety - though it is not, strictly speaking, a retrospective.  While the intellectual content and text are a bit high brow, the large colorful works of art were entertaining enough to hold (some of) Diggory's attention.  Colleen's name badge did the rest of the work.  Once you explore the first level of the exhibition, visitor's travel up the spiral staircase to the upper level.  If you have a stroller, back track through the first part of the exhibition and take the small elevator just outside the exhibition's entrance up to the next level.  Then speed through the end of the exhibition, turning right out of the elevator, to the top of the stairs, so you can catch the exhibition where you left off.  Most exhibition's I've seen in this gallery space end where you get off the elevator, but this one continues past the elevator and balcony (with excellent views of the Calder mobile by the way) into the next two large galleries.  You'll find an elevator nearby that will take you down to the ground level and the East Building's fourth street entrance.  There's a ramp here, if you come in or exit the East Building here.

From here, we walked across the National Mall to the Department of Agriculture's farmer's market and bought some blueberries and zucchini, two of Diggory's favorite foods.  Then we dropped Colleen off at work and made our way back to the L'Enfant metro station to catch the train back to our car (parked at the shopping mall across the river...).  All in all, a wonderful afternoon, with wonderful company, and wonderful art.

Thursday, June 14, 2012

I'm back!

So, we're back from vacation!  Actually, to be perfectly honest, we've been back for about two weeks.  It's been awfully hard to get back to "real life," so please forgive my delayed post.

It's funny how a single trip overseas can change your life.  I'm not trying to be dramatic.  I swear.  It's just the truth.  In fact, I'm a firm believer that any, and every, experience can change your life, from the mundane to the exotic.  So, if I want to think that living out of a suitcase for two and a half weeks, dragging along a toddler, and putting a bunch of check marks on my bucket list, can change my life...Whoop!  We survived, had a blast, want to open a B&B in Slovenia, and realized we have too much "stuff" in our house.  Time to clean out under the bathroom sinks (done, by the way) and start researching real estate regulations overseas.  

All right, I digress, yet again.  This is a blog about museums and babies, and I promise you that I won't make this a travelogue.  (Okay, it will probably read like a travelogue of the museums we visited.)  I'm only posting pictures of museums and historic sites, and a few select other images to provide context.  I'll refrain from describing the excellent food, triumphs and failures of train travel, rental cars, and taxis, and the mostly good (but sometimes bad) of our accommodations.  Also, I won't bore you with too many details about where the changing tables are, etc., etc.  You don't care about that so much.  And, suffice it to say, that the changing tables were generally non-existent, but where they did exist, the set up was awesome.  Go figure.  Also, the "locals" were generally super duper baby friendly.  One generous inn keeper kept Diggory entertained in an adjoining room so Nathan and I could enjoy breakfast "alone," and one very cute waitress "stole" him away to the kitchen to show him how "the pizzas make."  I had a moment of hesitation, but then I realized we were on an island and he wasn't going anywhere, she seemed genuinely nice, and I really wanted to drink that glass of wine (or two) alone with my husband.  

Also, this is going to be more of a photo essay in format.  I'll list the museums and sites we visited below, and then you can peruse the photos at your leisure.  I'm tempted to say, "I've more than made up for my 'one museum a week goal,'" but I won't.  In fact, the main impetus for getting this post done tonight is that I'm going to the National Gallery of Art tomorrow, and I hate not being "caught up."

So, here we go.  The following are the museums/sites we visited on our trip, listed by city:

(Ah, and the caveat here is that I definitely didn't go to everything, or even things that my art-history-major self "should" have visited.  I always tell myself that I'll be back.  For example, I didn't see The Kiss at the Belvedere Palace while in Vienna.  Shameful.  It just wasn't in the timeline.)

Vienna, Austria
  • Opera
  • St. Stephen's Cathedral
  • Hofburg Imperial Apartments, Sisi Museum, and Imperial Silver Collection
  • Hofburg Treasury
  • Kunsthistorisches Museum
  • Kaisergruft

Hallstatt, Austria (The entire town is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.)
  • Catholic Church and Charnel House (Bone Chapel)
  • Protestant Church
  • Roman ruins in the basement of the Dachstein Sport Shop
  • Interpretive signs hiking down from the Salt Mine Museum (Children under the age of four aren't allowed in the salt mine.)
Ljubljana, Slovenia (We hardly went to any museums here, but we were too tuckered out after Vienna and Hallstatt.  We wandered about, and that's good enough.)
  • Ljubljana Castle
  • Riverside Market and Dragon Bridge
  • Preseren Square
Lake Bled, Slovenia
  • The Island, by pletna boat, the Church of the Assumption and the ninety-nine steps
  • Blejski Grad (Bled Castle)
  • WWI sites in the Julian Alps through the Vrsic Pass, including the Russian Chapel and Kluze Fort, and along the Soca River
  • Postojna Caves and Predjamski Grad (Predjama Castle), on our drive from Bled to Rovinj, Croatia
Rovinj, Croatia
  • Church of St. Euphemia (and bell tower)
  • Balbi Arch
  • St. Stephen's Church, Motovun (We at lunch at Mondo Konoba in Motovun, a hill town east of Rovinj.  Anthony Bourdain ate here on No Reservations.  We left cool.)
  • Zavrsje (It's a town, and it's old.)
  • Groznjan (It's a town too, and it's also old, and it's also an artists' colony.)
Venice, Italy
  • St. Mark's Basilica and St. Mark's Square
  • Doge's Palace and Bridge of Sighs
  • Correr Museum
  • Accademia Museum
  • Rialto Bridge
  • Oh, gosh.  I feel like we went more places than this!  I guess we just bopped our heads into lots of churches and such.  I admit, I didn't always know where I was.  Exploring and wandering is part of the fun!)
Istanbul, Turkey (We were here for a twelve hour layover.  We needed a place, not the airport, to sleep, so we booked a hotel, strategically, two blocks from the Hagia Sofia and the Blue Mosque.)
  • Hagia Sofia
That's it - now, enjoy the photos! (Only 22 of over 1,500!)




Enjoying the audio guide at the Imperial Silver Collection at the Hofburg Apartments.  Amazing!  Seriously, one of the highlights of the whole trip.




Panoramic view of the Natural History Museum and the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna.




Diggory feel asleep in the carrier (behind Nathan) so we stopped at the Kunsthistoriches cafe.




Babies aren't allowed in the salt mine in Hallstatt, Austria, so I placated myself with the interpretive signs on the way down.




The graveyard at the Catholic Church in Hallstatt, with the Protestant Church steeple in the background. 




Inside the mountain under Ljubljana Castle, Slovenia.




The view of Ljubljana from the castle tower.




Diggory enjoying the museum at Bled Castle, Slovenia.




The view of the Island and the Church of the Assumption, from Bled Castle.




Bled Castle.




The Russian Chapel, Vrsic Pass, Slovenia.



Predjama Castle, Slovenia.




Rovinj, Croatia at sunset.  That's the bell tower of St. Euphemia, upper right.




The steps up the bell tower at St. Euphemia, Rovinj.  Yes, I climb these with a baby strapped to my back.




The view of Rovinj from the bell tower.  




The view from our room in Venice, Italy.




Me and Diggory in awe, the Accademia.




The Campanile, St. Mark's Basilica, and the Doge's Palace (left to right.)




This is the "Get Diggory in a photo with the Rialto Bridge, 'cause when's he's fourteen he won't be able to say we never did anything fun with him" photo.




Inside the courtyard of the Doge's Palace, with St. Mark's Basilica in the background.




The view of Hagia Sofia from our hotel's roof.  Yea, pretty awesome.




Crazy happy, inside the Hagia Sofia, Istanbul, Turkey.