A Day at the Museum

Last weekend, my mom and her cousin came to visit with the specific purpose to visit the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston's Fenway neighborhood. Mom had gone once before and was amazed by it. Whenever she would talk about it, I got the urge to go and see just what made it so great.

On a chilly Friday morning, we got a cab on Charles Street and went to the museum. We were a bit early (it opens at 11) so we stood outside in the heavy winds with quite a few others, waiting for the museum to open. Once we were let in, we went to buy our tickets and I was happy to find out that, as an Emerson student, I get free admission! So I will definitely be returning many times while at Emerson.

The entire museum is beautiful and there is so much to see, plus there is a lot of history behind the museum and Isabella Stewart Gardner's life that led up to the creation of this beautiful place. In short, Isabella was a woman from New York City and was educated in Paris. She married John "Jack" L. Gardner, the brother of a classmate and Boston's most eligible bachelor. After losing their only child at 18 months old, they threw themselves into their passions, which included art and travel. They traveled widely and Venice became Isabella's favorite place. After Jack's death, Isabella decided to have a museum built in the Fenway neighborhood (which was considered country in when it was build in 1903).

The museum is clearly inspired by Venetian art and architecture. There is a courtyard in the center which is filled with flowers, fountains, and statues and is covered by glass panels so there is natural light constantly. Isabella meticulously chose where each piece of artwork was placed in every room and, per her request, nothing is allowed to be changed, altered, or moved. Where Isabella chose to place everything is where it will always remain.

There are so many rooms to see and paintings and sculptures to admire. There's a small sanctuary on the first floor that is beautiful and every room is enviable. The staircase is spectacular.

There is a lot to see and in the addition that was build behind the museum features space for exhibits and an acoustically amazing music room where performances are often held. I definitely recommend making your way to Fenway if you visit or live in Boston. This museum, because it was a residence at one time, is very different from any other museum I've visited and it one I hope to return to often, because there is so very much to see! Not to mention, when you pull up to the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, you will feel like you are seeing a small slice of Venice in the middle of Boston.

Sisters in the City

A weekend in New York. All right, here we go. Friday afternoon, I hopped a train to Grand Central to spend the weekend with my sissy, Marina. She lives three blocks from Grand Central so I got off the train and walked to her building. We hung out for a few minutes, catching up, before heading out to the Morgan Museum and Library.

 It was a nice walk and not too far from her place and the museum was gorgeous. So many books! So many libraries! And there was an awesome exhibit on modern literature, showcasing rare editions, hand-edited manuscripts by the authors themselves, and interesting tidbits and facts about writers and their works. Both of us could speed through a museum pretty quickly, but we took our time here because all of the displays were so interesting! This museum also tends to change up their exhibits pretty quickly (and they are usually literary themed) so I feel like it's a place you could go to often and never get bored!

After the museum, we kept walking, went down through Union Square, and ended up at The Strand bookstore. I was in heaven. And of course, I have no photos to share because who has time to take photos when there are miles of books to be bought? I think we spent a good hour and a half to two hours in there, browsing. I must've picked up ten different books and carried them around for a while before deciding I had to be practical about what to buy. I only left with two books, The Valley of the Dolls and The Complete Short Stories of Flannery O' Connor, because they were both so well priced, but the walking and looking and reading was so fun and I will definitely be back.

All the book shopping tired us out so we took the subway back to Marina's and relaxed for a bit. We had dinner plans with some of her girlfriends who were coming up from DC but they wouldn't be in until 9 or later so we had plenty of time to just hangout. We put on a few episodes of Friends and Marina set out some cheese, crackers, and fruit and we started the bottle of rose we got to share with her friends.

Once we heard from the rest of the girls, we walked to a nearby restaurant called Tuttles. The four other girls met up with us there and we had a great night together! It was after 10, so Marina and I got some small plates to share and the whole table shared a bottle of Prosecco. We sat in the outdoor dining area that was enclosed by other buildings. It was beautiful summer night and we enjoyed the bright city lights.

I slept surprisingly well that night. I thought I would be awoken at all hours because of the noisy city, since I'm used to sleeping in the quiet suburbs, but I didn't wake up once! We didn't rush in the morning. We had breakfast, coffee, and I started reading The Valley of the Dolls.

Around eleven, we made our way down to Soho to check out the New Museum. They had an exhibit on Middle Eastern art and Marina and her friends used to live in Cairo together so they were all very interested in that!

From there, we made our way to The High Line and walked around it for a bit. It's so beautiful and such an odd feeling to be walking through a green park, winding its way through tall, city buildings. It was another gorgeous day but it started to get very hot in the midday sun and we were all hungry for lunch by then so we didn't stay up there too long before heading to the Chelsea Market for lunch. There, we ate and shopped around at the pop up shop.

After lunch, we walked to a nearby bar that had a roof deck for a glass of sparkling rose before Marina and I went back up town to get ready for dinner.

Dinner on Saturday night was probably one of the best parts of the entire weekend. We went to a great little restaurant in Chelsea called Bottino and sat outside on their patio that was strung with white lights. We had a good three and a half hour dinner. We split apps, had delicious entrees, and shared a big slice of tiramisu for dessert. We talked non stop and laughed like crazy. Our waiter commented on the fact that we had covered a wide variety of discussion topics over the night, spanning from Catholicism, Middle Eastern politics, waxing, weddings, the usual gossip, and college stories. Our waiter also fell in love with Marina's friend and slipped her a little love note as we left, which we then promptly performed dramatic readings of on our way down the street.

It was a great weekend made even better by the great company we had. I'd been wanting to stay with Marina in the city for a while and I'm so glad I was able to do it before I move to Boston! She was the greatest hostess and she guided me around the city like an expert. I love you sissy!