Journal to a Muse

Friday we had a day to ourselves in The City.

Because we hope to be back on a fairly regular basis, and because we knew we were tired... (DH had three all-day meetings in a row while I was trying to keep up with DD and her shopping, tourguide persona) we "just" navigated the commuter rail, and the T and headed for the Museum of Fine Arts.

The Museum had two special exhibits. The first was a collection of cars owned by Ralph Lauren (who knew?) that were amazingly polished and maintained (or restored... I couldn't tell). They all seemed like something out of The Great Gatsby, or a Cary Grant/Audrey Hepburn movie.

Mercedes



Bugatti


Camel -- Oh, this wasn't a racing car... but it was part of the Asian exhibit you had to walk through to get to the Lauren vehicles. Don't you wonder what a camel driver would think about a Ferrari?

Of course we were hungry by then. We ate in their fine dining restaurant called Bravo. I'm constantly amazed that museums can sustain such pricey eateries. This one was pricey AND the chef obviously had full reign in the kitchen. I had a salad sampler with pickled ginger/Asian cabbage, Caesar salad with recognizeable anchovy fillets, potato salad and pasta with shrimp.


I liked how the lime looked on the bread and butter plate.


There was also an exhibit of quilts from alabama. That's all I need, is inspiration to take up another hobby. these were so wonderful... not all angular and perfect like some quilters aspire to, but obviously works of love and solving the "problems" associated with limited supplies, limited pallette while honoring the desire to make something useful and beautiful.

Don't you love that one red circle?



We hopped back on the T and were able to find two used bookstores. Both claimed to have huge marvelous inventories, but neither of us were impressed. No science fiction to speak of, no knitting books, no May Sarton and lots of dust.

So we cut through the Boston Common from the south side and headed for Newbury Street. We discovered this fountain on the way. I read in a tour book that the artist added the bird on the child's hand after seeing a staged photo in which the photographer had put seeds or nuts on the hand in order to attract a pigeon.



We made it to Newbury street, with feet on fire. I was SO wanting to see the Society for Arts and Crafts Gallery. I thought I knew the street number (I mis-remembered it) and the people I asked about it didn't know, even though we were only 1/2 block away.

It wasn't as big as I expected.
We were pretty pooped and stamina was flagging. Ice water and diet coke have never tasted better than at Joe's American Bar and Grill. Apparently this is a chain or franchise (We also enjoyed the one in Woburn)... but the Newbury location, on lots of levels in a pre-existing building, seemed quaint rather than suburban. The waitresses were pert, pretty and refilled our water and coke glasses with as much enthusiasm as if we'd been drinking Cosmopolitans or Sam Adams. When we'd lowered our core temperatures and could barely slosh, we found our way to the Boston Public Library, Trinity Church and Copley Square. Though we were mostly looking for an in-bound train so we could go back to our hotel.

Travelling is hard work!

On the flight home, I skipped the $500 veggie pizza that American Airlines offered and took a nap instead.