The Dali Museum

Exactly a week ago, we were in Tampa at the Dali Museum.



We had visited the museum's older location several years ago, but this was our first time seeing their new building (new as of 2011).








We took the guided tour first, which was entertaining and informative.



Then wandered around on our own with the audio tour.


















The gardens behind the museum are beautiful, as well. They include a wishing tree, where guests hang their wrist bands with wishes written on them, and a hedge maze.






















http://thedali.org

The Winter Park Art Festival and Getting to Meet Gail Carriger

We drove all the way to Winter Park and back in a single day (about 10 hours in the car), but it was for a good cause. One of my favorite authors, Gail Carriger, was doing a book signing at the Writer's Block Bookstore.



The Winter Park Art Festival was also going on only about a block away from the bookstore, so we arrived early to wander around.

Parking is usually a problem during the Art Festival, but it rained most of the day, so downtown Winter Park was delightfully free of crowds and we found a surprisingly close parking space.



The rain cooled things off, so that the temperature was much more comfortable than the 80+ degrees that had been predicted and it did stop raining in the late afternoon.











The incredible steampunk art of Gabriel Puyana:





These fantastic teapots are all functional:



It's hard to tell in this picture, but the potter/sculptor, Robert Kastrino is holding a sleeping baby squirrel in his hand. The tiny squirrel had fallen out of a tree behind his tent the day before and had crawled into his hand for comfort both Friday and Saturday.









The professional artists were not the only ones with their art on display. The Winter Park Art Festival always includes tents full of local students' art.







Blaze and I being silly:



After exploring the entire art show, we had a dinner at the Bosphorous, a Turkish Restaurant, since that is something we don't have in Tallahassee. The food was excellent!



For Gail Carriger's book signing, we had come up with a quick costume for Blaze. He is supposed to be a "Piston", one of the cool kids at Bunson's, the boys' school for evil geniuses in the finishing School series.









The question and answer period before the book signing was a lot of fun! Gail Carriger is just as good at telling stories in person, as she is in her books, and just as humorous. Her beautiful, bright pink, lace dress and constant smile brightened up the tiny bookstore. The space was not really designed with popular authors in mind and fans were packed in tightly to see her, but everyone was so friendly and polite, that they managed to squeeze in each new arrival.

This was the first time that Blaze had ever met the author of one of the books we have read and I'm glad that he enjoyed himself. He was acting a little shy at the bookstore, but afterwards he said she was very funny.

For tonight's bedtime story, we are beginning Gail Carriger's book, Curtsies and Conspiracies.






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The Minneapolis Institute Of Art

We arrived in Minneapolis on Wednesday afternoon (May 13), so that we could attend a dinner for the bride and groom's families at Pizza Luce in Downtown (excellent pizza, by the way). Then we had most of Thursday to entertain ourselves, until it was time for the wedding. My original plan was to go to Como Zoo on Thursday morning, but it was raining. Ula had suggested several free places to visit in Minneapolis, so we tried the next one on her list, the Minneapolis Institute of Art, instead.





This was a great place to spend a rainy day!







Benches with a tablet attached to each end, showing information about nearby displays, were scattered throughout the museum.



There is an impressive collection of Asian art.







Blaze and Grandmother looking at art together:





Then we went back to the hotel to prepare for the wedding.