Saturday, July 16, 2022

Milwaukee Art Museum and Bastille Days

 

I forgot to mention yesterday that, apropos to my post about getting pushed around by birds, I was working from home on our porch when a female black-throated hummingbird kept staring in the window at me. It really seemed like she remembered that we had a hummingbird feeder up the last couple of years and she was demanding to know why it wasn't up yet this summer. Why? Because I'm lazy, that's why. I sighed, washed the feeder thoroughly, and blended some hummingbird nectar, then I set the feeder out, and the little hummingbird kept coming to feed from it with great satisfaction. See? Even the tiniest of birds can push me around!

Today Travalon and I met Tiffy in Milwaukee, where we had lunch sitting outside at Benelux, a Belgian restaurant. We tried to go to the Lakefront to park, but the traffic was horrendous because of some Red Bull Fest we hadn't known about, so we ended up going back into town to park. We walked back to the Art Museum, where Tiffy got us in for free. We went to a special exhibit of an artist whose name I have already forgotten, but he was a French guy who did a lot of posters in the 1880's. Here are some examples, as chosen by Travalon, since I didn't take any photos of them:








We watched a documentary about African Americans in Paris, then we explored the rest of the art museum. Here are some paintings we really liked.





And here are Travalon and I in front of the window overlooking the lake. You can see that it was an overcast day and sort of cool for this time of year.


True confession: that is my favorite outfit, and if I could wear it every day, I would. Maybe I should have bought five of those shirts.

Then we walked over to Bastille Days, which is nominally a French festival in downtown Milwaukee. On the way we saw this mural of Giannis on a building.


I asked, "Why is he facing away from us?" and Tiffy said, "Maybe he's facing us on the other side of the building," but alas, there was no mural on the other side. Then we got to Bastille Days, which sort of reminded me of Art Fair on the Square here in Madison. There were lots of arts and crafts for sale in a ring around Jackson Square, and all sorts of food. I got tie-dyed ice cream - the flavor is called Superman, and it's raspberry and cherry.


There wasn't too much that was French except an inflatable Eiffel Tower that I really should have photographed but didn't. It was very cheesy. Then we walked to Rock Bottom Brewery and sat outside overlooking the river to eat dinner. I ordered the one sour beer on the menu... and then they didn't have it. They did have this clever sign inside.


On the riverwalk, we found this statue of Arthur Fonzarelli from Happy Days.


Just after we crossed the bridge, it was raised to let a large boat go through. I wondered what it would be like to be on it when it went up, but Tiffy doubted that it would be safe. We saw some girls who were almost stuck on it, but they ran really fast to get off before it raised up. A flat section raises straight up, not like a drawbridge, so it seems like it could be fun, but who knows? Travalon liked this sculpture of ducks in a canoe that was also along the riverwalk.


By the mural of Giannis I found a $20 bill, so I used some of it to buy earrings at Bastille Days.


As you can probably guess, they do glow under blacklight.


This shot is kind of out of focus, but when I didn't shine the blacklight on them quite as directly, the colors were more visible.


And these are some crystals we got a few weeks ago but I never posted photos of them.


The one in the middle was picked out by Travalon himself. That's his own crystal. I think it's lapis lazuli...? Half the time I can't remember what type of crystals mine are, or what their special powers are supposed to be. I just like the way they look.


Famous Hat


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