Washington D.C.

This is a little overdue.

I just loved visiting D.C. with Mal and Amy. Especially because they were so patient while I dragged them from school to school. I am oh so happy and grateful they traveled our nation's capitol with me. :)

Abe.

Little update: Went to D.C. this past week to visit grad schools.

One thing I loved learning more about on my recent travels to the District of Columbia: Abraham Lincoln. So awesome.

Also. Amy and I went to Ford's Theatre (where he was shot) and it was totally creepy. We were hoping there would be ghost stories... but... there weren't.

(this is a terrible photo of the theatre. I don't really know what I was thinking when I decided to take a picture of only half the building. Seriously. But at least you *kind of* get to know what it looks like, right?)

More sooon!

San Francisco

San Francisco was pretty awesome.

Jasper Johns, Land's End, 1963.

A Few Highlights:

One of the first galleries we went to is owned by a man named Anthony Meier. He shows work in the entrance of his home and the back rooms and upstairs are residential. He was having an opening the night we were there of an artist named Robert Buck. I liked his work. He takes images of smoke he finds off the internet, screen prints the image, and then paints two layers. One with acrylic paints, the other with alert paint(what they use to paint road signs). Alert paint is super reflective so it was interesting to take photos of his work with and without flash.

The Artist: Robert Buck. In the zone. Explaining his work. He was totally cool and very interesting to talk to.

W/out Flash

W/ Flash

The SF MOMA was very cool. I think it's one of my favorite museums. Everything is super well placed and organized. Plus they just have incredibly awesome pieces.

Marcel Duchamp's The Fountain

Went to the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts. They were having a mural exhibit, which I really liked. Giant rooms were dedicated to one or two murals:

Also walked along the wharf and Chinatown:

The seals are totally hilarious and adorable. I could have watched them for hours. I think they would have liked that too.

We went to a few more galleries while there and also did a few artist studio visits, which were one of my favorite things. Another favorite thing was the Mission District. I'll do a smaller post about that soon!

Just love to travel!

Thoughts

I've been grading essays for a while now (for those who don't know: I am an essay grader for my old high school AP art history teacher). I actually really love it, but always seem to underestimate how much time it is going to take me to get done :) oops! Even though I really should just be plowing through, I've decided to take a break and update my blog with my thoughts instead.

A. Which I've been thinking about for a while, and completely thanks to Mal: I can't believe I had almost forgotten the incredible awesomeness of this little gem:

I think I've watched it about 6 times just today.

B. Actually that might be it. I've been trying to think of other thoughts I have, but there really aren't any. I do think of more serious things some/most of the time. I'll just say it's from how hard I've been concentrating for the last x number of hours.

Also. I went to San Francisco last weekend with the UMFA. I'll do a post hopefully soon, but here's a little something to tide everyone over (since I know my many readers are now dying to see more;)

Just sitting inside a Claes Oldenburg Safety Pin at the de Young.

Along the Rhine

(View from Bacharach ruins)

Bacharach is located along the Rhine and was the last town we stayed in. It's one of many very very small towns that are only a few minutes drive from each other along the river. Each had it's own castle and was completely adorable.

In Bacharach we visited some ruins on a hill overlooking the town. There were just a few towers left of what used to be a small castle. (at least I think it was a castle... could have been some kind of religious building too) The red window is a Jewish memorial:

The Rhine floods for about two weeks every year and covers the major freeway in front of all the towns. It was really interesting to me to see how high the water reached. The city wall has markers that measured how high the water reached during certain years.

On the second day we took a river cruise to the town of St. Goar where we saw the ruins of Rheinfels Castle, the largest castle ruins along the Rhine.

Linderhof

On the fourth day of the trip we went to Linderhof Castle, which was modeled after Versailles. It was the only castle finished by Ludwig II when he was king of Bavaria during the latter half of the 19th century. Ludwig was kind of obsessed with Louis XIV. He had portraits and busts of Louis and his mistresses throughout the palace and he didn't really even know him. I think they might have met once (maybe just a little bit creepy). Ludwig was completely eccentric. When he lived in this castle he would always dine alone and because he didn't want anyone in the room while he was eating he had his table placed on a platform, which could be lowered into the floor. The servants would place the food on the table and then raise it back up to the king. Crazy? Yes. The inside was gorgeous, however. The castle has its own "hall of mirrors" too, which was completely amazing, but you were only allowed to take photos outside of the castle.

From the gardens:

Where Beer is cheaper than Water...

I traveled through Bavaria the first week and a half of August with my cousin and aunt and just got back a few days ago. We mostly spent time in Germany, but a little in Austria too. The Bavarian countryside is one of the most beautiful places I have visited and we got to see some amazing things while we were there.

First... On the second day I broke my mom's digital camera:( so I don't really have a ton of photos from the trip right now. Just waiting to share with my cousin and aunt :) These are a few pictures I took with a disposable camera I bought from the third day of our trip in Reutte, Austria. We hiked up to the Ehrenberg Castle ruins. The castle was built in 1293. They were so pretty and the view of the city below was beautiful.

So we decided to hike down the back of the mountain to get back into Reutte instead of taking the same path we took to get there because we thought it would be faster. It was maybe one of the most terrifying things of my life. The path (if you can even call it a path) was so steep (and I was in a skirt) and muddy and I seriously thought I was going to die... not even joking. Hopefully I get some pictures of the path we climbed from my cousin so I can show how truly ridiculous it was that we even made it to the bottom alive. And it ended up taking us twice as long to get back... terrifying. Other than that, the castle was awesome and Reutte was completely charming:)

24th

I ran in a 10K in Salt Lake with some of my family on the 24th of July. This is the second year we've done it as a family and I love that it is becoming a tradition. Eight of us ran this year.

I stole this photo of us after we all finished off of Kristi's blog because I was too lazy to find my own picture:)

Also, I leave for Germany this morning with my Aunt and cousin. Just decided to write a blog post and paint my nails before we left. I should be getting ready instead, but no big deal:) Hopefully they don't confiscate all my liquids at the airport or dump my suitcase on the floor to see if I have a bomb inside because, you know, I can see how some people could mistake me for doing something like that.

I was looking through photos and decided to post some favorites from recent memories (in no particular order). They really just make me want to go everywhere and anywhere.