NYC, and other things I've been doing on vacation

Just a quickish post. ish.

This past 2 weeks have been awesome (or almost 2 weeks)
D and I are visiting his family in Connecticut where we have
- played plenty of games in the evening like contract rummy, fill or bust, and upwords.
- eaten copious amounts of tasty food
- been VERY silly
- visited old buddies of Dave
- visited his friend's workplace: an awesome music studio where many awesome people have come to record music.
- had a big family get-together lunch where D got to see and hold his baby Niece!
- visited the sea wall
- seen a live band and a few tricks by a localish magician
- played duck pin bowling (my first time)
- Drove just into NY (not the city) to see JEFF McBRIDE - AWESOME MAGICIAN - it was a small intimate setting where he was even greeting people at the door - and we stayed for a 2 hour lecture afterwards. How awesome is that?!



We also visited Vermont where we got to
- see my aunt, uncle and cousin
- play the Wii (my first time!)
- visit the Fairbanks museum of natural history and planetarium in St. Johnsbury.
Incidently... while in St. Johnsbury, we drove past the museum and decided to drive around the block so we could find a good parking space further back.... driving around the block on in a MOUNTAIN VILLAGE is not an easy task! We ended up on this VERY STEEP AND THIN CURVY hill going DOWN down down down and then wound our way back up the street... awesome and a bit scary but we ended up where we wanted to go. :)
The Fairbanks is this small museum with a bit of everything from geology, stuffed animals, plant displays, civil war history, cultural history (such as an egyptian mummy next to another section with a miniature Japanese temple display) , antique toys, and .... some paintings made from bugs - mainly moths and beetles, created by John Hampson - there is a Roadside America report about it HERE.
See image below - THAT is all made of moths and beetles.


THEN
We visited my cousin Lily in NEW YORK CITY! I have never been there before!
Well, I take that back. I have a vague memory of being in NYC as a kid - so vague a memory I wasn't sure I made it up. I have been told that I was brought to the Statue of Liberty.
BUT. while we were there we
- visited a few galleries - one was the Joshua Liner gallery - very cool , the artists currently on exhibit were Sylvia Ji and Travis Louie
- saw a man dressed in a shirt composed of an old dirty ripped flannel and newspapers - he seemed normal (enough) and smiling, talking to someone until he sat down and suddenly he transformed into the most pitiful creature on the planet, and holding out a cup for money- now thats an art form.
- visited Lily's appt - tiny but nice!
- walked on a raised railroad track transformed into a beautiful walkway and garden. Awesome!
- Visited central park. Beautiful. Awesome. Rocks and hidden areas. We saw a man practicing his golf putting in a small cleared dirt area next to some bushes, a Rastafarian man selling hair wraps for money or weed, and we walked on a huge rock hill overlooking a small fair and from the top of the rock was a wonderful view of the city above the trees.
I had a blast.




Today is our last day in Connecticut. we end it with a small family get together. We have done so much this year and I think I'm inspired and ready to hop back into art!