Museum Adventure

Here are a few cool things I've seen so far on my museum adventure...

At the Oceanside Museum of Art, I came across photographer Carolyn Guild.  I love her photos.

 

 

 

We boarded a bunch of historic vessels at the Maritime Museum.

Today, I wandered around the San Diego Botanic Garden and saw some cool bamboo among other plants.

This bamboo was making a creaking sound while I was standing under it.

 

My favorite part of the garden was the bamboo section.

San Diego Museum Month

  

So, it's museum month in San Diego county and I'm going to try and go to as many as I can....for fun....why not?  I hope to be enlightened and learn something interesting. 

My first museum visit was today at the Museum of Making Music.  They had a lot of cool old instruments on display and you could listen to samples of music from different eras.  I can't imagine the sound distortion if that place is ever really crowded, because the music is kinda loud.  At the end they have a room where you could learn to play and actually try playing different instruments. I plucked a few strings...it was cool.  I have learned that they have several cool concerts here, so I will be hopefully back to check those out sometime.

We'll see if I actually keep up with this adventure.  

Fun in San Francisco

San Francisco is one of our favorite cities to visit. We stayed with some friends and had some good food and lots of fun.

We got our chocolate fix at Ghirardelli.We visited Chinatown.

Mike and Alex.

We went tea tasting, which we'd never done before. You go in and sit at the counter and they pour you several teas to taste and tell you what they are good for, like digestion or relaxation. Our lady kept telling us the tea wasn't for "yummy yummy" but for health benefits. We ended up buying some for their taste. However, I don't remember what the benefits are for "Blue People" and "Siberian Rose".

Lots of different kinds of tea.

The tea leaves. The Siberian Rose is in the middle.

Riding on the Muni with Alex and Melissa.
We also visited the California Academy of Science. It was a cool museum with a rainforest, aquarium, living reef, living roof, and a planetarium.

"The Academy's green rooftop will keep the building's interior an average of 10 degrees cooler than a standard roof would. The plants also transform carbon dioxide into oxygen, capture rainwater, and reduce energy needs for heating and cooling."
Pictures taken from under the aquarium.

Rome, city with lots of history

We arrived in Rome about noon the first day of our trip. We took the train from the airport to the city center, checked into our hotel and headed to the Colosseum. It was only a 15 minute walk from our hotel. We were able to get a lot in that afternoon. After the Colosseum, we walked through the Forum to the Pantheon, Trevi Fountain and the Spanish Steps.

Colosseum

The first night, we had dinner at a family-run restaurant that seemed to be in an alleyway. The streets are very small and narrow, so it always seems that you are walking in an alley. When we first arrived, the server sat us at a table that was so close to another couple, it would seem as though we were there all together. Most of the other tables were empty, so we asked to move. The couple told us that it wouldn't matter where we moved to, but we didn't understand what they meant. Almost immediately, another couple was sat next to us as close as before. We quickly learned that all restaurants in Italy sit people this close.

Pantheon

The second day, we went to the Vatican. There were no Pope sightings while we were there. We walked a lot in Rome (and everywhere else), but we did jump on the Metro subway when we got tired or wanted to go somewhere that was too far from our hotel. The Metro was pretty east to figure out. We also jumped on the bus one evening to go to dinner. The only thing I knew was which bus to get on, but I didn't know what stop to get off. We finally heard some other tourists going to the same place we were and jumped off when they did.

Trevi Fountain

Our third day in Rome, we went to the Borghese Gallery. The museum was really nice, but it was the park that it was located in that was really cool. After going through the museum, we wondered around the park watching all the locals enjoy their Sunday afternoon. I especially got a kick out of the children. There was something about little kids speaking Italian that just fascinated me.

St. Peter's Basilica in Vatican City

The last night of our trip, we came across a small Jazz bar. We went in and ordered a bottle of wine and listened to some live music. It was really cool when the singer sang songs in Italian, but she actually sang a lot of popular songs in English.

When talking about this trip, a lot of people were concerned about what sort of weather we'd have visiting Italy this time of year. It only rained once while we were in Rome and it was only an hour or so and we were taking a siesta. We took naps a lot, but we were walking at least 10 miles a day.

All Rome pictures are at this link.