Museum Hopper

this museum was obviously jason's number one choice.  obviously.  after one false start, we arrived at the museum of flight early on friday morning.  we did get a AAA discount on the admissions, which saved us a few dollars.   the museum is basically split into three sections.  we headed over to the general wing first.  this is where most of their random collection of airplanes is kept (versus the other wing has the specialized world war I and II planes).  this section also has their space flight information.  this is where i wish jason would blog for me, since i am sure he would have a much better information and details and excitement about this than i do and would.  i did enjoy the section about the history of stewardesses in the airplanes, style in the aisle .  here are some pictures of the different planes we saw. my neighbor double dated to the prom with him the second wing is mostly the specialized world war II pla...

on this trip, i decided to take in the seattle art museum with my boyfriend, jason.  i was a little hesitant after our vancouver art gallery trip to take him to another art museum.  i even offered for him to view the museum of flight on his own and then meet up with him later!  (post coming later on the museum of flight, so he obviously did not take me up on my offer.   i thought this museum was very well laid out.  it was a few main floors and very easy to flow through each exhibit.  it is structured as you would expect, european art, african art, modern, etc.   i really wanted to go to this museum to see the three paintings they have on my 1001 paintings list!  i was able to quickly identify the museum area to target and was able to easily check the three paintings off the list!  jason also really liked the cars exploding in the lobby .  we were also quite impressed with the large collections of african and first na...

on the first thursday of every month , seattle hosts gallery art tours in the pioneer square district .  since jason and i happened to be in eattle on that date, i just could not help myself. we had to go and "get it out of the way" for my summer in seattle.  we got there as it was starting and i was very impressed at the quantity of galleries that existed in this little area.  i am not sure i would have ever noticed them if not for this tour.  i think we were a little amazed at the variety of people enjoying the art.  we saw serious art collectors to tourists likes us to "hipsters" visiting their artist friends.  it was definitely all over the board.  the galleries also varied from small single artist spaces to large galleries that seemed to have more developed artists.  one of the shows even was of an artist from michigan!  some of the art was quite out there.  jason definitely did not enjoy it.  i would have loved to have spoke...

as soon as we arrived in seattle (just about), we headed to the seattle space needle even with storms rolling through.  it was pretty crazy! the ticket sales are on the outside and actually, sort of difficult to find.  we headed up with just about no line.   it was quite breezy at the top with it swaying back and forth.  the needle has spectacular views at the top.  i also enjoyed that it had sections on the history of the space needle, the different neighborhoods you could view from the top as well information on a number of the different monuments/important places you can see from the top!  there is an indoor portion of the space needle and an outdoor place that is where pictures can be taken.  the gift shop was surprisingly awesome.  i was amazed.  jason bought a ton of seattle stickers for his extra fridge.  i almost bought birthday presents for my father.  the fudge for sale looked delicious.    ...

on our last day in vancouver, we went to the dr. sun yat-sen chinese garden , which was the first chinese garden of its type in north america.   it was this peaceful oasis in the middle of the city.  the area surrounding the garden was pretty seedy including walking right by a man bent over a police car surrounded by cops.  once you stepped foot in the garden, however, it was serene and beautiful.   we followed the tour...we did not, unfortunately, take the tour since our timing was not great to attend one of those.  it did provide enough information in the brochure to really appreciate the garden.  the views were just beautiful.  it was a great little break in the bustle of downtown vancouver.   times visited: 1 time in garden: a little over 1 hour overall: B+

during our walk through stanley park , we went to the vancouver aquarium to check out the dolphins and sea otters and the beluga whales .  it was a drizzling rain and gloomy.   the aquarium has some indoor and some outdoor exhibits, which we did not quite realize going into it.  the aquarium was quite easy to get around and had a number of above tank and beside the tank viewing spots (especially important for the whales and dolphin viewing).   we went to a few different shows, dolphins , beluga whales , seals and sea otters , while we were there.  we loved seeing the large mammals.  the shows were definitely written for children, but we learned some new little tidbits, particularly in the beluga show.  it was also interesting to see the exhibit on the local northwest coast.     the best part (and i cannot believe i forgot to put this part) was the rescued pacific white-sided dolphin, daisy.   if you head to the ...

my boyfriend gave me a book for christmas called the best art you've never seen .  i found the book fascinating since it also lists why you've never seen it!  this was reasons varying from being a private collection to being too "fragile" for viewing! i also have a new update on 1001 paintings you need to see.  i saw 3 in seattle!  you can see the updated list! here is the list !

our first official day in vancouver, we headed to stanley park ! we probably picked what ended up being the worst day to go, but off we trudged.  it was rainy off and on hovering around 32F/0C.  we started walking as cars can drive through the park, so out to the point on the north side of the park.  as we walked through, we stopped at the totem poles, which you can see here.  they are pretty interesting! we walked all the way out to the point to the lighthouse.   we also went to the vancouver aquarium, which is inside the park. overall, i enjoyed the park.  it had maps at often enough intervals.  my biggest complaint was the lack of path clearing anywhere in the park.  we spent the entire time trudging on half melted piles of snow.  times visited: 1 time in park: 5 hrs overall: B+

while i was in vancouver, i also headed to the vancouver art gallery ! i went with my boyfriend, who was not super excited about it to begin with. we arrived at the end of the day and were able to use our student IDs to get a discount on entrance. the museum had been mentioned a few different times in the guidebook and i was pretty excited. when we arrived, the building is quite beautiful. we asked for a map of the museum, but they do not have one. Once we started through the museum, we saw that a map was not really necessary. each floor was on a complete exhibit and the top floor is currently closed. the first exhibit started out as interesting...i hoped it would get betteras we went up. it was a good start. it was an exhibition titled we: vancouver . it was a good view of vancouver values and ideals. some of the ideas were unusual and i have seen similar things discussed in detroit like the urban farms and new urban building development. the next exhibit we visited was ken lum ...