New York, Storm King Art Center

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Activity: Storm King Art Center

Rating: 4 of 5 stars

Description: Sculpture Garden outside of New York City. Great for a bike ride around the sculptures or a picnic. It is accessible by car or a 1 hour bus from Manhattan Port Authority. The land is 300 contiguous acres  and founded over 50 years ago.

LA Museums- The Broad, LACMA, & Peterson Automotive Museum

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Activity: Museum exploring in LA

Rating: 4 of 5 stars

Description: Went to a variety of museums to see exhibits from Jeff Koons > Rain Room> to the national treasure of the Back to the Future car and the Bat-mobile

Viva Mexico 🇲🇽- Lucha Libre, Fashion Museum, Pyramids, and more!

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Activity: Mexico City

Rating: 5 of 5 stars

Description: The variety of things to do in one weekend in Mexico city is amazing. Just watch out for traffic!

  • Pyramids of Teotihuacan here
  • National Museum of Anthropology here
  • Boat tour in Xochimilco here
  • Luca Libre purchased tickets at the stadium and arrive early. Or buy online
  • Museum of Palacio de Iturbide here
  • Metropolitan Cathedral with tour of the top here. Highly recommend getting food in the restuarants wiht balconies overlooking the square wiht view of Cathedral
  • Santa Fe area shopping here
  • Soccer (Futbol) Game - stadium guide

World Tour: Final Stop- London art exhibit

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Activity: Ai WeiWei exhibit in London

Rating: 4.2 of 5 Stars

Website: https://www.royalacademy.org.uk/exhibition/ai-weiwei

Description: I went to the Ai WeiWei exhibit at the Royal Academy of Arts in London for the last leg of my trip. The exhibit is about Ai WeiWei's experience in jail as well as other representations of political protests. The most interesting part of the exhibit is the diversity of installations. There are wooden chairs, crabs, vases, chandelier of bike parts, wall paper, etc. Each were very unique and represented an important belief of Ai WeiWei. 

Tip: book tickets in advance or through a booking as the lines can be long 

World Tour: Third stop Berlin

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low:Activity: Touring Berlin- Hop on, hop off bus tour. Berlin Wall- Eastside Gallery, and Berlinische Art Gallery

Rating: 4.5 of 5 stars

Website  Bus Tours,  East Side Gallery, and Berlinische Gallery

Description: Berlin was my favorite city in Germany. It is artistic, fun, and full of things to see. The first day we did another bus tour to make sure we hit all the major sites. We were able to see all of the below: 

Stop 1 - Tauentzienstrasse 16
Stop 2 - KaDeWe
Stop 3 - Potsdamer Platz
Stop 4 - Martin-Gropius-Bau (Mauerreste)
Stop 5 - Checkpoint Charlie
Stop 6 - Gendarmenmarkt
Stop 7 - Mühlendamm
Stop 8 - Alexanderplatz (Park Inn Hotel)
Stop 9 - Alexanderplatz (Alexa)
Stop 10 - Rotes Rathaus / Neptunbrunnen
Stop 11 - Lustgarten/Musemsinsel/Altes Museum
Stop 12 - Brandenburger Tor
Stop 13 - Hauptbahnhof (Washingtonplatz)
Stop 14 - Siegessäule (Großer Stern)

After the bus tour we went to the Eastside Gallery of the Berlin wall. This was one of my favorite sites to see all the famous murals.  

The next day was rainy and chilly so we went to a lovely brunch and then to the art museum (listed above). The museum was in the top 5 of Berlin art. There were more galleries near Checkpoint Charlie that were recommended as well.

We also wanted to go to the top of the Reichstag Building with a glass dome, but the lines for the same day were very long and advance tickets require time to process personal details. After the art museums we went to KaDeWe to shelter the rain and had some snacks at the fish and cheese bars.  For dinner we tried this Asian inspired burger place that was delicious--Shisho Burger.

Overall, Berlin is a must see city to add to the Bucket list!

 

Bay Area Stay-cation: Museums & food

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Activity: Oakland Gallery tour and Berkeley dinner

Rating: 3 of 5 stars

Website: 

Oakland galleries:

  1. Mercury 20
  2. Vessel Gallery
  3. More ideas

Berkeley Restaurants:

  1. Tigerlily- Indian with a twist
  2. Cesar- Spanish Restaurant
  3. Cheese Board Pizza- renown pizzas

Cost: The galleries were free to walk around and dinner was about $30 pp for the restaurants above

Description: I had been wanting to check out Oakland since I moved to SF a year ago. I had heard about the artist culture and decided to visit some galleries with a friend. Unfortunately, several were closed because the prior day Oakland had hosted the parade for the Warriors leaving the city tired with trailing blue and yellow confetti. 

My friend and I went to 25th street in Oakland as there were some small galleries open that were all in close proximity. I found the work of Carlo Fantin (2nd picture) the most interesting. He hosted a variety of paper images that had each tiny section cut out to form an religious image. He added details of social media to each image for an interesting dichotomy. The first image above is from the Vessel gallery. The photograph is of a work installation of wheels that spun. The installation had sand on the top. The challenge with gallery tours is that you can not take pictures for blog documentation purposes.

After the gallery tour we chose to explore restaurants in Berkeley. We ended up choosing Tigerlily for atmosphere and the fried chicken reviews. It was delicious! We were debating on Cesar as well which is next door and also smelled fantastic. The last restaurant on the list had stellar reviews, but the line was obscene. So we will have the pizza for another day.

Recommended: Adults that want a relaxing Saturday exploring Bay Area neighborhoods

 

Hot Glass, Cold Beer: SF Glassblowing

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My friend recommended a glassblowing workshop the weekend of January 31st. We arrived at night, unsure what to expect. She had heard about this event through a friend of a friend that was into the glassblowing "scene." I am not sure exactly what this "scene" entails, but from what I heard there are very few professional glassblowers in the US. The leaders in the craft live are mostly in italy and some other parts of Europe where the tradition has passed down by family members. An amateur glassblower elaborated that glassblowing techniques are very difficult so people work together to learn from each other and improve their craft. What a unique hobby!

The event itself was exactly as the title describes:

  • hot glass-=glassblowing live
  • Cold beer= wine and beer options with unlimited pours
  • Music- there was a live band in the main room and a separate techno DJ in another room. I do not recommend the techno DJ to be honest 
  • Your own glass blown cup to take home
  • Reserved seating for VIP. Plenty of standing room for GA ($25)

The main area was  social and had the master artist with two assistants. The main glassblower worked with the glass while another helped him to blow into a long metal straw. The third helped from shaping to moving the glass back and forth from the kiln. 

The pictures above do not do it justice to be honest. If you are in the mood for a funky evening with craft beer, check out the events calendar at Public Glass,

Until Next Time. Stay Tuned.