Today was a Fabulous Day

I took Allie to the new de Young. She decided that she would like to go there before returning to Duke tomorrow. I hope she had a good time, because I loved my day.

It was super being able to walk around in an art museum with a student who has chosen art history as her specialty. We enjoyed talking about various works that we saw, or at least I enjoyed it.

The traveling exhibit that opened last Saturday is “International Arts & Crafts”, organized by the Victoria and Albert Museum. There are many fabulous pieces in this particular exhibit. I had been looking forward to attending when the exhibit opened. Of course, I truly like the American Arts & Crafts Period, but I especially enjoyed seeing the beautiful work from Great Britain and Europe. The Scandinavian pieces were of interest, as were the Russian objects.

I am not certain which items in the whole of the museum that Allie liked the best, but she definitely seemed to show interest in many things. I was afraid that she was not able to “visit” the exhibits for as long a period as she would have liked, and I also feel that she would have wanted to see things that perhaps she did not see. It is always difficult to do a large museum justice in a few hours, and it is also not easy to ascertain which period appeals to a person other than oneself.

All I know is that I thoroughly enjoyed spending the hours with Allie, the little lunch we enjoyed in the café, our discussions of individual works and certain periods, and I even enjoyed her critique of the architecture of the building. She thinks it is ugly.

The huge flower arrangements in “Bouquets to Art” which were scattered throughout the museum were of interest to me. It was also an exhibit that I had wanted to see. Some pieces were very weird, some beautiful. Tomorrow is the last day for that exhibit, so I lucked out.

The weather was icky, rather dismal and rainy, therefore it was a good day for museum going. The only bad thing was that it was difficult to see much from the top floor of the tower. On a good day, the view is incredible – the old buildings scrambling over the hills of San Francisco, the top of the Golden Gate Bridge, the Pacific Ocean peeking through an area in the distance.

Allie, I will miss you when you return to North Carolina, but at least I will see you again in May when you graduate. I can’t wait to visit you and see Duke. I’ll be one proud grandmother when you receive your diploma. I am already a proud grandmother – you made Phi Beta Kappa.