Becky's photoblog

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After saying farewell to our lovely hotel room, we picked up our rental car and headed up to Mont Royal Park to enjoy the view of the city. We headed to St. Joseph’s Oratory right near the park because it was something I had read about. We had a long drive ahead of us, so I figured we would just swing by and see it, but it turned out to be a ginormous church at the top of a hill, with a really big parking lot – it looked like a pretty big deal, so we found parking and walked up lots of stairs … totally worth it. Really really beautiful.

Back in the car for one last necessity before hitting the road: fresh bagels. Mission accomplished, and we headed south but we didn’t get very far before we found out about a massive detour: the big bridge over the big river was closed, and our internet access was spotty at best. We thought we might have to swim across the St. Lawrence, but we managed to figure it out, and before long, we were at the border and on to the gorgeous green mountains of Vermont (that are actually rather blue).

Another necessary stop was the Ben and Jerry’s factory in upstate Vermont. Fun tour, delicious ice cream, homage to the flavor graveyard, and back on the road as the sun began to set. A few hours later, we finally saw the Boston skyline … home at last!

We woke up on the last day of our cruise with the sunrise again, and we were treated to a spectacular view of Montreal waking up. We had to be off the ship pretty early, so just like that, it was over, but we still had two more days to explore Montreal, and drive home.

We were super lucky that we could get in to our hotel room at 10am, and we were incredibly pleased with our hotel room! Brian and picked out Le St. Martin Hotel Particulier, and it was an excellent choice – one of the highlights of the trip. Spacious, great decor, a fireplace and a ginormous tub, with a sliding door opening up to the rest of the room. We settled in a bit, then took off to explore Montreal.

We headed straight to the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, which has a wonderful collection in a cluster of lovely buildings. They have a cut-out model of Florence’s Duomo, which was pretty incredible to see. Then we headed over to the Notre-Dame Basilica, which was absolutely phenomenal. It was easily the largest of the many churches we saw this week, and the deep blues and greens of the altar and the vaulted ceiling were incredible!

After a warm croissant or two, we continued wandering around. Later in the evening, we visited another church very close to our hotel, the Basilica of Mary Queen of the World (sounds better in French). It was very beautiful and peaceful, and it had a baldacchino altar very similar (but smaller) to the one at St. Peter’s in the Vatican.

We continued our evening stroll through a neighborhood with tons of shopping and McGill students, found some dinner, then headed back to our cozy hotel to relax for the evening. We’re happy, exhausted, and ready to head home!

While we were in the city to meet our newest little cousin, we squeezed in a magnificent trip to the Met. We headed straight to the Sargent exhibit to see several of our favorites, and it was an absolutely fantastic exhibit. Then we covered a lot of ground in a short time and saw lots of our favorites before heading to Brooklyn.

For tonight’s theme of Myths and Monsters, four storytellers stood at the four corners of the courtyard and performed three stories from Greek Mythology while a cellist played! It was pretty spectacular!

The tiger lilies looked amazing in the Gardner Museum’s Monks Garden at the first Neighborhood Nights of Summer 2015

The National Building Museum is a great place to go to watch your adorable cousin stack things up and knock things over, over and over again!

We drove from Raleigh to DC, and decided to stop in Richmond for lunch at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts. We figured we would eat, see a few galleries, then get back on the road. We probably should have known we’d end up there for 3 hours.

After a delicious meal, we wandered the galleries, starting with an incredible collection of Art Deco and Art Nouveau. The VMFA really does have a great collection, and it was a real treat to find that the VMFA has copies of not one, not two, but three of my most favorite sculptures!

We had a quick visit the DeCordova Sculpture Park, just long enough to enjoy a meal with some relatives we rarely get to see, wander a few galleries and see some giant outdoor sculptures.

I had an awesome time volunteering at the Gardner Museum’s Third Thursday. The theme was Garden Party, and we had a full house of summery, pleasant, inquisitive visitors!

When we stayed at the Sea Crest Beach Hotel in May 2013, we ‘discovered’ a lovely church right near lots of cute shops and restaurants in Falmouth. Before dinner, we stopped by to visit this little gem again. We discovered that they recently added a labyrinth … yet another copy of the famous labyrinth at Chartres Cathedral, so of course I had to walk the labyrinth. It’s a bit smaller in scale than the one I walked just one week ago on the Greenway, but it was lovely and pleasant. We visited the church’s gorgeous little garden as the sun continued to set, then we settled in for a delicious dinner!

Art in the Bloom at the MFA is a feast for all of the senses (except touch of course!)

Where else would we go on a chilly Easter afternoon when we had a few hours to kill after church and before dinner? Apparently, a few other people, including our cousins (!), had the same idea. Yes, I know, I was just at the Gardner last weekend to see the nasturtiums, but the flowers in the courtyard have changed since then and it was a treat to see the lovely oranges and blues.

It’s always so nice to go from a long day at work straight to the MFA. We were there for a lecture, but before that, we visited the brand new Hokusai exhibit. We barely scratched the surface of an absolutely spectacular exhibit.

Every year in early Spring, the Gardner Museum’s courtyard features gorgeous hanging nasturtiums, and I finally got to take photos of them! The Gardner’s nasturtiums are my favorite sign that spring is here! Actually, this year, they’re a sign that spring really is coming soon …

What to do after visiting a museum? How about another museum! We took a short drive from Nothampton to South Hadely and visited the art museum at Mount Holyoke College. I had been there before many years ago, and Brian had never been. It’s a lovely little museum with a handful of beautiful exhibits.

We needed to get out of town, so we took a little day trip out to the Berkshires to hang out in a town we both enjoy. Northampton has lots of cool shops, galleries and restaurants. We also revisited the Smith College Museum of Art which had recently redone some of it’s galleries.

I spent most of a personal day (which I scheduled before I had 5 days off for snow) at the Gardner Museum, chatting with families on school vacation week, giving an intro talk about the collection and the collector, and soaking in the beautiful sun-lit colors of the courtyard.

A few glimpses of the snow-covered greenhouse, and the courtyard at the Gardner’s Third Thursday

Started a lovely Saturday by attending a lecture at the Gardner Museum about an ancient epic tale, then snapping this lovely shot of the Gardner’s much-need mid-winter oasis of greenery, because I can! I do love me some ancient epic tales …

The Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum recently changed its photography policy to allow visitors to take photos of the courtyard (photography is still prohibited in the rest of the museum). This means that after ten years of volunteering and ten years of enjoying this incredibly unique and magnificent space, I can finally take pictures of it!

We have been out to Worcester several times in the last year or so, and yet we haven’t been to the Worcester Art Museum in a long time (since we first got together). What else is there to do but go to a museum on a rainy three-day weekend when football isn’t on til later in the afternoon?

A glimpse of lovely purple flowers at the Gardner Museum’s greenhouse before heading out in to the cold after a fun evening of volunteering!