I already shared a look at “Chihuly in the Garden,” the Missouri Botanical Garden’s summer exhibition…now it’s time for a look at “Chihuly Nights,” the special ticketed event they’re hosting Thursday through Sunday nights through August. It was a thrill to get see these beautiful glass pieces lit up as the sun went down!
First, a look at the indoor sculptures that I didn’t previously share, beginning with the pieces hanging from the rafters of the Linnean House:
There are many displays inside the Climatron:
I especially enjoyed the glass Ikebana:
There were also some pieces in the new Emerson Conservatory:
Including some unexpected neon:
We saw the installations throughout the garden at varying light levels…they all looked amazing! The evening events at the Botanical Garden are rare, but they’re some of my favorites, because I love seeing how the light changes as the sun sets!
And finally, a look at an old favorite from a previous exhibition that is permanently displayed at the Missouri Botanical Garden…we don’t usually get to see it lit up by anything other than the sun!
I doubt we’ll have another opportunity to see the nighttime exhibition, but I’m really looking forward to seeing all of this artwork during the day throughout the summer!
On Monday, we visited the new “Chihuly in the Garden” exhibition at the Missouri Botanical Garden, and it’s amazing! We’re looking forward to going back next week to see the displays lit up at night!
Today is the opening day of the “Chihuly in the Garden” glass exhibition at the Missouri Botanical Garden! Chickadee, Ladybug, and I visited the Garden yesterday, and while they were putting a few finishing touches on the displays, for the most part, it looked like everything was ready to go. Here’s a look at some of the outdoor pieces (we’re going to take a look at the indoor glass in the future):
And a closer look at a few of my favorites, starting with a display featuring a boat on the Central Axis:
Speaking of boats, another one appears in the lake in the Japanese Garden:
The pink color of the piece in the Boxwood Garden is lovely, and I also love how it’s displayed:
But the Chinese Garden, which has elegant blue glass, might be my favorite display of all!
Next week, we’re going to “Chihuly Nights” to see the installations lit up…I can’t wait!
One of the things I was most excited about doing when we were at Disney World was stopping at the Contemporary Resort so we could see the Mary Blair Grand Canyon mural:
The mural is 90 feet tall (!!!), consists of 1,800 hand-painted tiles, and took 18 months to create. It is really hard to comprehend just how massive and detailed it is without seeing it for yourself!
Here’s a zoomed-in (and therefore slightly blurry), look at one of the most famous parts of the mural…the five-legged goat. Mary Blair included it reflect a Southwest Native American belief that nothing made by man can be perfect because man is imperfect. This reminded me a lot of the way quilters will often turn a block in their design, and I think it’s a really cool way to acknowledge the beliefs of the original inhabitants of the area the mural represents!
The scenes representing daily life in the Grand Canyon are whimsical and beautiful:
My only sadness (ok, two sadnesses) is that A.) I didn’t have someone take my picture in front of it; and 2.) That I didn’t photograph the signature tile with Mary Blair’s signature on it. I guess I’ll just have to go back and see it again someday!
We only ate one meal out in Washington D.C. (the first time I had eaten in a restaurant since before the beginning of the pandemic!), and Ryan found a really cool local place for us to try…Ben’s Chili Bowl:
Before I get to the food, let’s start outdoors. In 2004, D.C. had a public art project, “PandaMania” and one of the remaining statues is located at Ben’s. Seeing it brought back fond memories of our STL250 cake hunting experience!
Ben’s is over 60 years old, and inside, it looks exactly like you would expect a restaurant of its age to…an old-school diner, which I loved!
Virginia Ali and her husband Ben started the restaurant together in 1958, the same year they got married. The big picture over the diner counter is like seeing a family photo in someone’s house!
I tried the Original Chili Half-Smoke (I wasn’t brave enough to try the spicy variety!). Normally, I can kind of take or leave hot dogs…usually they’re just ok. But the half-smoke at Ben’s was really good. There was a definite snap when I bit into it, and the flavor was fantastic. Chili, mustard, and onions are also the perfect hot dog topping…almost good as a Chicago-style dog!
The art on the building is so cool (and yes, President Obama has eaten there)…it really establishes the character of the place, and visually summarizes what Ben’s website says: “Our Black community is front and center in this story and Ben’s is a perfect case study – a study in our quest of freedom and its ongoing re-definition. Ben’s Chili Bowl is proudly Black-owned, and a historic landmark in Washington, DC’s culture.”
I love finding cool local places to visit when we travel!
The second day of our trip was the one I was most looking forward to, because after three long years, we were finally going to go back to Chicago! The weather forecast wasn’t promising, but in the end, although it was quite cool, the rain lifted, and that was good enough for us. We got to leave from a new-to-us Metra station (Palatine), so we saw a bunch of different suburbs on our way downtown.
The sights that greeted us were just like I remembered:
It was so good to be back!
Bunny took some time to feed some pigeons:
And one even photobombed her!
Mostly, we just walked around and took it all in. It was so much fun to see all of our favorite places (and some new ones), and we even stopped to listen to a street musician (who was very talented!) for a bit. The only thing we didn’t get to do that I would have liked was see Buckingham Fountain and Lake Michigan, but it was very windy, and that was in the opposite direction of the other stuff we had planned, so I settled on seeing a sliver of my lake from a distance.
We walked up the Magnificent Mile to Water Tower Place, something new for us. We stopped in to see the big American Girl store and the Lego Store (two of our favorite places):
We also spent some time in Jane Byrn Park by the historic Water Tower:
After that, we made our way to the Plaza of the Americas so we could visit the “Wings of Mexico” art installation, which is “a symbol of the immigrant journey and celebrates Chicago as a sanctuary city.” Moose didn’t care to have his picture taken, but us gals couldn’t resist!
No visit to Chicago would be complete without a stop at the former Marshall Field’s on State Street to buy a box of Frango Mints!
And then we made our way back to the train and said goodbye to my favorite city. The last time I said goodbye, I assumed I’d be back “soon.” Three years later, and without Turkey joining us because he was working Combo Breaker the whole day, I finally made it back. I really hated to leave, and I’ll never take it for granted again.
Back at the hotel, Combo Breaker had begun, so we spent some time on the floor, taking in all those sights, too.
We also enjoyed playing some of the arcade games they had set up, including Pac-Man, Space Invaders, and Donkey Kong.
We couldn’t resist another walk outside, where the evening light was perfect. Also, we enjoyed watching muskrats swim in the hotel ponds…who knew?!?
We also found time for one more evening swim…it wasn’t quite the same as swimming under the stars at Pheasant Run’s outdoor pool, but it was still fun!
Chickadee wanted to go to the St. Louis Zoo on her birthday (which is tomorrow), but it’s supposed to rain, so we decided to go today. So how, you may ask, did we end up at Laumeier Sculpture Park instead?
The zoo is still requiring (free) reservations for admittance, and much to my surprise, when I went to request our tickets last night, they were already sold out. So Chickadee decided we should go to the Missouri Botanical Garden instead. But when I went to reserve those tickets through the member portal, I discovered that they’re closed on Mondays. So Ladybug suggested Laumeier Sculpture Park, a place we haven’t visited since pre-COVID, and it was a great idea!
We saw a lot of familiar art:
And we took a path we’d never been down before, and saw some really cool things (and did a lot of climbing…those steps were just as steep as they look!):
