For the Fun of the Thing - Sun., Sept. 4, 2016

Our staycation continued today with the luxury of sleeping in late. Our first destination today was McNay Art Museum. One of their special exhibits here until September 11 is Coney Island: Visions of an American Dreamland, 1861-2008.

Ever since the exhibit opened on May 11, I have wanted to see it but as we know life sometimes gets in the way. This weekend is a perfect time to get to the museum for the exhibit.

The McNay's website describes this exhibit below:

"Coney Island: Visions of the American Dreamland, 1861–2008 celebrates the most iconic, uniquely American amusement park in the United States. Also called, “the People’s Playground,” Coney Island is a national cultural symbol that has inspired artists, musicians, novelists, poets, and filmmakers. From Coney Island’s beginning as a watering hole for the wealthy, through its transformation into an entertainment mecca for the masses, to the closing of Astroland Amusement Park following decades of urban decline, the exhibition explores 150 years of the lure of Coney Island. The modern American mass-culture industry was born at Coney Island, and the constant novelty of the resort made it a seductively liberating subject for artists. Taken together, these tableaux of wonder and menace, hope and despair, dreams and nightmares, become metaphors for the collective soul of a nation.

"Coney Island is organized by the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, Hartford, Connecticut, and the McNay is the exhibition’s only Southwest venue. The exhibition features more than 140 objects—paintings, drawings, photographs, prints, documentary and popular film clips, posters, side show banners, architectural artifacts, memorabilia, and carousel animals. From early depictions of Coney Island by Impressionists William Merritt Chase and John Henry Twachtman to modern and contemporary images by Diane Arbus, Walker Evans, Red Grooms, Yasuo Kuniyoshi, Reginald Marsh, Joseph Stella, Swoon, George Tooker, and Weegee, Coney Island investigates America’s playground as a place and an idea."

No photography allowed in the Coney Island exhibit...
this is as good as it gets for a photo.

This is a particularly fascinating exhibit to me because it incorporates not only the art and advertising over 150 years, but it delves into human subjects as well. For example, sideshows exploited people's disabilities and deformities, showcasing those suffering from certain diseases, charging admission, and making spectacles of them.

Another example of the psychology of Coney Island was creating thrill rides in which total strangers were thrown into others on roller coasters and Tilt-A-Whirls. Singles often met their spouses by literally bumping into them on these rides. There was an allure and adventure in going to Coney Island when it was in its heyday.

Percey's Pocket Dictionary of Coney Island is mentioned in the exhibit under the title of "For the Fun of the Thing." I looked up the quote to find its origin. Here is how it is used in the book:

"Photographs. — If you should for any reason, personal or otherwise, desire to have your picture taken at Coney Island there is a small pavilion devoted to the art near Leach's West End Hotel, and at the Brighton Beach Bathing Pavilion. There are generally itinerant photographers also to be met with on the beach. The quality of the pictures taken, of course, rarely surpasses
the original, but you don't pay for flattery, but 'for the fun of the thing.'" 

Coney Island consisted of three separate amusement parks -- Luna, Steeplechase Park, and Dreamland -- as well as seaside resorts, vaudeville theaters, croquet lawns, an aquarium, piers, pavilions, bowling alleys and restaurants. The first carousel was built at Coney Island in 1876 by a Danish woodcarver.

One of the movies on display in the exhibit was from 1905 and showed the park at night lit by Thomas Edison's light bulbs. All the buildings were outlined in lights. It was very pretty.

A huge, seven-story building in the shape of an elephant was visible to people arriving on Coney Island. Known as the Elephantine Colossus, this building housed a hotel. People the world over traveled to Coney Island to partake in the amusements.

The amusement parks suffered a decline during the depression. During part of that period, Coney Island was used to train troops when the U.S. went to war, and the sound of soldiers marching took over the boardwalks. In WWII there was a resurgence in the need for amusement parks and once again the parks gained in popularity.

Another impressive portrait of Coney Island in art and photographs was the sheer number of people on the beaches. The crowds were body to body. I couldn't figure out how anyone could get from their towels to the water, or how they ever found their way back to their belongings!

From the Coney Island exhibit, we toured the rest of the McNay and spent some time on the grounds of the museum which are worth investigating.

"Man on Fire," by Luis Jimenez, Jr.,  cast bronze

The installation below is a continually changing video of wildflowers revolving and moving. It was beautifully mesmerizing.

"We Came from the Stars," by Jose Alvarez

Inner courtyard

Tile art of Don Quixote

"Guernesey," by Pierre-Auguste Renoir, 1882

A new exhibit since the last time we visited was the art of toy theaters. These toy theaters had elaborate moving parts, lighting, and an array of set drops and cut-out characters. The toy theater below was made by Ruloff Kip, a wealthy New Yorker, for his daughter Elizabeth. What was special about this toy theater was his attention to detail and his use of his own family for inspiration.

Kip's Toy Theater

 Below is another toy theater created by Everett Shinn.

Everett Shinn's Toy Theater

The McNay Art Museum not only has an interesting and eclectic collection of art, the museum itself is a work of art. The building is a 24-room, Spanish Colonial-Revival house and has gorgeous lines and a beautiful inner courtyard. In 2008, 45,000 square feet was added to create gallery space for major exhibitions, classrooms and an outdoor sculpture garden.

Bob on the second floor of the McNay

Lovely lines of the second floor landing

"Stream of the Black Pond," by Gustave Courbet

We then wandered outside to see the grounds.

Nice walkway

Bob by the fountains

Me with a big tree

Us in front of the McNay Spanish Colonial-Revival mansion

Bob with his new girlfriend.

We had worked up an appetite and headed to Broadway where we have been working our way through the many restaurants along that street. Broadway 50/50 was recommended to me by my hairdresser so we gave it a try. 

Our lunch stop

Interior of Broadway 50/50

Art on the walls

Bob's salad and my burger and sweet potato fries

That was a good plate of food!

With that part of our day complete, we headed home to rest before we headed out to the San Antonio Missions baseball game. Oh, just before we got home, we took the Escape Pod to the car wash, it was a mess! At least we got it clean.

The ball game was supposed to start at 6:00 p.m. We arrived at the ball park a little after 6:30 p.m. only to find this...

Rain delay

Everyone waiting under cover until the rain passes.

A definite "hurry-up-and-wait" scenario.

The game had a couple of false starts. The crew started taking the tarp off the field, but ended up putting it back on three different times. It was fun to watch the process...not something we usually get to see.

Removing the protective tarp

Removing the tarp in a different direction.

Putting the tarp back on.

They finally removed the tarp for good about 7:15 p.m. and the game was played at 7:40 p.m. We stayed until the top of the 9th inning. The Missions were down by one run to the Corpus Christi Hooks. I'm not sure who ended up winning.

We had another wonderful day on our Staycation. When we returned home, I wrote a blog. Then I noticed Six Flags Fiesta Texas was having a 70% off sale on their 2017 Season Pass! OMG, that's amazing. The sale is only good until midnight, Sept. 5. The Season Pass includes admission to the park for the rest of 2016 until the end of 2017, parking, admission to special events and, from time to time, we get to bring a friend to the park for free! I signed us up and for good measure added the Dining Package. Any time we go to the park, and we can go as much as we want, the Dining Package gets us lunch, dinner and a snack. We couldn't pass that up. My friend, Susan, bought tickets for her and her hubby, Darren too. Score!

Thank you, Bob, for such a wonderful weekend. And we still have a day to go. Yee ha!

A Birthday, A Theft, A Concert, Walks, Movies, An Award, and a Baseball Game - Sunday, August 23, 2015

OR...How much stuff can I cram into one blog?

Let me begin by saying: Our life is not boring! Over the past two weeks, we have been busy doing a variety of fun stuff, in addition to our usual walks.

But before I tell you about what we've been doing, here's a birthday message I want to send: HAPPY BIRTHDAY to my son, Michael, who turned 36 today. Michael, the day you entered our lives we were so thrilled. Throughout the years you have exceeded our expectations and we are very proud of you. I hope you're having a wonderful celebration today in Oregon. Play some laser tag for me, okay?

In my last blog, I forgot to mention we went with our friends Lisa and Joe to see the San Antonio Missions play baseball on Wednesday night, August 5. It was a beautiful evening at the ballpark and we had a relaxing time watching the game.

The last time I wrote, Sunday. August 9, we had walked the south part of the downtown River Walk. On Tuesday, August 11, I wanted to see the movie "I'll See You In My Dreams" with Blythe Danner and Sam Elliott. It had some pretty good reviews and I liked both of the main actors. The movie wasn't what I expected. It started out with the death of her beloved dog. It was obvious she hadn't done much with her life since her husband died 20 years earlier; her life was very routine, nothing exciting happened. She played cards with her friends who lived in a senior community. They wanted her to move there, but she wanted to stay in her house. Her dog dying was a wake-up call for her to get on with her life.

One day, while she was in a drug store checking out vitamins, Sam Elliott walked up to her and said, "You don't need those, you look fine just the way you are," then walked away. She was smitten. The rest of the movie deals with issues of growing older, coming to terms with what's happening in your life, and making plans for fun events in the future. This would be good for a Netflix rental, but don't expect too much from it. In the end, it disappointed me, even though the critics seemed to like it.

Bob took Tuesday afternoon off work and met me at the theater to see "San Andreas." Now that's an exciting summer blockbuster! We were on the edge of our seats through the whole movie. It's about a big earthquake hitting the Hoover Dam/Las Vegas area and setting off an even larger magnitude quake along the San Andreas Fault in California. Wow! Quite the movie thrill ride!

After the movie, I hopped in my car and drove home. It took Bob quite a while to get home. He had left me a voice mail because my phone was still turned off from the movie so I didn't hear it ring. While we were in the theater, his truck was broken into. They stole his radio, his briefcase with his computer, and his gym bag with his sweaty gym clothes in it. (He had just bought his brand new briefcase a few days earlier.) That really sucks. This is the second time in three years his truck has been broken into.

Wednesday through Saturday, I worked my usual days at the RV park. On Saturday and Sunday our managers at Travelers World RV Park, Brenda and Terry, went to the Texas RV Association (TRVA) annual meeting. While I was working on Saturday, an email was sent out from one of our Carefree RV Park associates who was also at the TRVA annual meeting. She announced that Travelers World RV Park just received the 2015 Texas Small RV Park of the Year Award! How cool is that? This is a nice way to be honored.

Our plaque (hanging on the wall)

Office team: Brenda, Delia, Susan, Terry

Maintenance and housekeeping team: Terry, Bob,
Felix, Dan, Lee, Tom, Larry, Brenda

On Sunday, August 15, Susan, Bob and I walked Salado Creek Greenway (10k) out and back from Lady Bird Johnson Park in San Antonio. Again, temperatures were in the mid-80's when we started walking at 8 am, with humidity in the 80s. Ugh. But I'm glad we got out for some air and exercise.

Start point of today's 10k Volksmarch

Salado Creek Greenway

We chose this walk because it's mostly shady!

Bamboo

Walk over, time to eat breakfast. The Magnolia Pancake House sounded pretty good; however, it's VERY popular on Sunday mornings...as in 65-75-minute-wait popular. We were too hungry to wait, so we decided to drive to IHOP down the road. We were seated within ten minutes and soon had food in front of us.

Bob's Double-Stuffed French Toast breakfast

My Tuscan Scramble breakfast

It felt good to have a 10k walk and breakfast all finished up by 11 am. We went home and slept for a couple of hours after that.

Monday morning, August 17, Susan and I were going to walk Salado Park Greenway again. I got up, drove to the park to meet her at 7 a.m., but no cars were in the parking lot. I wondered if she was stuck in traffic, so I checked my text messages. I should have checked at home before I left. She had sent me a message in the middle of the night saying she couldn't make it. Oh well, I was there, so I did a 5k (3.1 mile) Volksmarch by myself. The trail wasn't crowded. It was definitely warm and humid even at 7 a.m. (before the sun came up).

Debris pile from previous flood

Salado Park Greenway bike path

I finished walking by 8 a.m., then went home to do chores: vacuuming, laundry, washing dishes, cleaning the bathroom.

Tuesday morning the 18th, Susan and I walked the Brook Hollow neighborhood which has lots of shade. Doesn't make much difference when the humidity is high. Whenever we do this walk, we see lots of deer.

Adorable fawns

As we walked past, the doe was keeping her eye on us!

Pride of Barbados flower

The coffee shop where we start our walk

Tuesday evening, August 18, I had free tickets through AARP to see a free pre-screening of "Learning to Drive," a movie coming out in a couple of weeks. The movie stars Patricia Clarkson and Ben Kingsley. I thought the movie was very good. It's about a middle-aged woman whose husband leaves her for a 30-something-year-old woman. She is devastated by the disintegration of her marriage, the ensuing divorce, and having to sell the house they shared for years in New York City. During her life she never learned to drive because either her husband drove her places or she took public transportation. A cabbie (Ben Kingsley) who drove her and her husband home after he had just confessed to his infidelity, heard her pleas for him to come back to her. One thing leads to another and we learn the cabbie is an Indian from the Punjab who is a Sikh. We learn about his culture, and that he teaches driving classes to supplement his income. She decides to learn how to drive. Tips about life are given during the driving lessons and the cabbie becomes her friend. This movie is so much better than "I'll See You In My Dreams." There's more depth and heart.

I have been wanting to see concerts at the Majestic Theater in San Antonio. So many good musicians are coming that we had to choose wisely which ones to see. On Wednesday, August 19, we chose to see Weird Al Yankovic. You know the crazy musician who parodies other musicians. He writes all the parodied lyrics himself and dresses in wild outfits that go with his songs. You may remember his song "Eat It," which is a parody of Michael Jackson's "Beat It." I can tell you we had a very fun time listening to and watching Weird Al and and his band. Plus the Majestic Theater is a place you should make it a point to see while you're in San Antonio. It's amazing. Two of the songs Weird Al sang that were my favorites besides "Eat it," were "Foil" which parodied Lorde's "Royals," and "Word Crimes." He is truly a musical genius.

Inside the Majestic Theater in San Antonio, Texas

Majestic Theater interior

Majestic Theater

Us at the Weird Al Yankovic concert

Pretty ceiling

Weird Al Yankovic's photo on a screen before the show

Weird Al Yankovic singing

Yep, that's Weird Al in the octopus costume
parodying Lady Gaga's silly costumes

Weird Al's Star Wars encore

Thursday evening, August 20, we went to the Missions baseball game with Maureen and Gary, friends from Bob's previous workplace. Again, we had a pleasant evening watching the game. When we left in the 9th inning, the Missions were up by 3 points.

That pretty much covers the past two weeks. I'll get to today in my next blog...hopefully tomorrow.

Travel Bug out.