NJ-PA-VA-DC Day Four

Fri/Sat/Sun/Mon, April 29-May 2, 2016 - Art, Friends, Rowing:
The inspiration for this trip is a Rowing Luncheon in Philadelphia, and excellent Museum Exhibits in Norfolk and Washington!

Day Four - Heading Home, with a stop at West Point

551 actual miles today (total 1631 miles for the four days); left Jessup, MD at 8 AM, home at 8 PM.

I was really blessed with traffic (or rather, lack thereof). I hadn't thought about it before, but i first had to drive 15 miles towards Baltimore before continuing northeast, and here I was going to be in Monday Morning Rush Hour TRAFFIC! I don't know why, but, although there were a lot of cars on the road, we all moved along quickly, and I got through the Baltimore tunnel easily (Thank You God!). I then just stayed on 95 until it dumped me onto the New Jersey Turnpike, and then took the exit for the Garden State Parkway north. I wound up going north on the Palisades Interstate Parkway, which runs through some beautiful woods/mountains:


I stopped at the Visitor Center - to quote a website: The Palisades Parkway Visitor Center and Bookstore is "The only bookstore in the area located on an island in the middle of a parkway!"


The Appalachian Trail runs right near here:

In the Bookstore I got a really cool map of the AT.

A few more miles, and I was at West Point:




I didn't know if it was correct, but I thought that since West Point is smack dab in the middle of where the Hudson River School artists lived, maybe the West Point Museum had some pictures. I was wrong. The exhibits are concerned with the History of War (and its horrors), and the History of the U.S. Armed Services - it was nice to see that the Civil War was not depicted as "the North winning against the South", but rather as a tragic episode in which graduates of the same institution wound up fighting and killing each other. It was sad, but necessary, to see the History of Man through his warfare, because, as George Santayana said, "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it."


I then headed north to get to 84 East, which took me through Connecticut to the Mass Pike. Stops at some libraries, and home by 8 - Thank You God for a Great Day, and a Great Trip! The Fit worked GREAT!

Music today was albums, but I don't remember the list (Delirious?, Bob Marley, Coldplay, The Head And The Heart, Jimi Hendrix, ...)

Shameless Plug: if you enjoy this blog, you may like my other one about Hiking the 4,000 footers in New Hampshire (I have done 41-of-48 thru October 2015)
hyperlink: dixonheadingnorth
http://dixonheadingnorth.blogspot.com/

NJ-PA-VA-DC Day Three

Fri/Sat/Sun/Mon, April 29-May 2, 2016 - Art, Friends, Rowing:
The inspiration for this trip is a Rowing Luncheon in Philadelphia, and excellent Museum Exhibits in Norfolk and Washington!

Day Three - The Beauties I saw today are going to make this a long blog!

385 actual miles today; left Fredericksburg, VA at 9 AM, checked in at the Super 8 in Jessup, Maryland (just southwest of Baltimore) at 8 PM.

In addition to the EXCELLENT collection down at the Chrysler Museum of Art in Norfolk, they had two exhibitions I wanted to see - the primary one by William Trost Richards (which ends TODAY!), and the secondary one by Edward Burtynsky (photographs):


The Museum opened at noon, and I got there at 12:05 (got delayed by a train-crossing)


My previous visit is documented in my March 11, 2015 blog, so I will not duplicate that artwork. New artwork for today include:
an etching from Giovanni Battista Piranesi - Le Antichita Romane (The Antiquities of Rome), 1784


Hubert Robert - Landscape with a Temple, 18th century:


When Wendy and I visited a gallery in Milford, CT in April, I was given a copy of American Fine Art Magazine:

It is Great! It has a wonderful "Museum Preview" article about Seascapes by William Trost Richards at the Chrysler Museum of Art (as well as an article about the Montclair Art Museum, which is why I stopped there on Friday):


All the Richards pieces are from the Chrysler's Permanent Collection. Highlights include:

Rocky Coast (probably Cornwall), ca. 1890s:


Tower on the Cornish Coast, ca. 1880s-90s:


There was a fun display of four VERY SMALL pictures

which are actually quite good: Menton, France, ca. 1892:

and for now, we will leave other fun stuff in my iPhoto folder, maybe for future discussions.

I left Norfolk at 1, and was stop-and-go all the way back up to Washington, DC - 194 miles took 5 hours. But then I was able to go to The Phillips Collection, which was open until 7 PM on Sundays!!



Which gets us to the BEST ART of the trip!!:

Seeing Nature: Landscape Masterworks from the Paul G. Allen Family Collection

Thomas Moran - Grand Canyon of Arizona at Sunset, 1909:


Thomas Cole - Ruins in the Campagna di Roma, Morning, 1842:


J.M.W. Turner - Depositing of John Bellini's Three Pictures in La Chiesa Redentore, Venice, 1841:


Claude Monet - Landscape on Ile Saint-Martin, 1881:


Claude Monet - Waterloo Bridge, Overcast weather, 1904:


Claude Monet - The Water-Lily Pond, 1919:


Canaletto - The Rialto Bridge, Venice, from the South with the Embarkation of the Prince of Saxony during his Visit to Venice in 1740, c. 1740:


Thomas Moran - Glorious Venice, 1888:


Canaletto - The Grand Canal, Venice, Looking Southeast from San Stae to the Fabbriche Nuove di Rialto, c. 1738:


From one location in the galleries, I stood and could see a Moran (Grand Canyon), a Cole, 4 Monets, the Turner, and a Canaletto - PRETTY DARN COOL!!!!

And from the Permanent Collection:
Pierre-Auguste Renoir - Luncheon of the Boating Party, 1880-81:


And then 1 hour to get to the Super 8 in Jessup, Maryland (just southwest of Baltimore). Dinner at Five Guys! Thank You God for a Great Day!

Music today was albums:

Rattle That Lock by David Gilmour, 2015

This album hit the TOP of the UK Albums Chart in September 2015 - not bad for a 70-year old (well, he was 69 at that time)

Rise Ye Sunken Ships by We Are Augustines, 2011


Déjà Vu by Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, 1970


and in the afternoon I Listened to BASEBALL - Washington Nationals at St. Louis Cardinals - the Nationals won 6-1, which made the local broadcasters HAPPY!

Shameless Plug: if you enjoy this blog, you may like my other one about Hiking the 4,000 footers in New Hampshire (I have done 41-of-48 thru October 2015)
hyperlink: dixonheadingnorth
http://dixonheadingnorth.blogspot.com/