San Francisco! (part 1)

My mom and I took an Art Travel class together.  Basically what the class entailed was us going somewhere to look at a ton of museums and take lots of pictures.  I have to admit, it may sound boring to other people, but I absolutely loved it!  I was a little overwhelmed by the end, but it was fun.  The museums we went to were the Crocker Museum in Sacramento, the St. Mary's Gallery at St. Mary's college, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the de Young museum in Golden Gate Park, and the Legion of Honor museum.  It was a full week.  I thought I should write down what happened so I have a record for myself (so I don't forgot because I have an awful memory), and also so I can help everyone else hopefully appreciate art better! 

Day 1 - Nov 2, 2011
This day, we met at the Spori building at 6am and got in vans.  And then we drove and drove and drove.  Day 1 wasn't the most exciting day.  My mom and I got the back seat which was nice because we could put all of our stuff behind us, but it was bad because I get carsick pretty easily and  all the bumps were just magnified by sitting back there.  But I didn't throw up at all so I consider it a successful trip!  Also, we got the van with the (mostly) quiet people so that was super nice!  We mostly all just slept and didn't annoy each other too bad.  Except 2 boys in our van who had a 6 hour long conversation (without any pauses).  I was amazed they found that many things to talk about! 

My beautiful Mama

When we stopped for lunch, one of the girls in the other van (we took 2 vans) left her purse in Arby's.  But she didn't figure it out until we were already a 1/2 hour down the road.  So our van pulled over in Carlin, Nevada and we waited for about an hour so they could go back and get it.  One of the teachers that was in our van was getting bored and so he started building cairn's.  My mom pointed out that all these artists just can't resist making art wherever they go and it made me think of the Seventh Son books by Orson Scott Card.  In those books, it talks about people being a "maker" where they are always creating things.  It was pretty cool to think about. 

Brother Geddes making his cairn

Later that night we finally made it to Reno, where we would stay the night.  We had about an hour to clean up and then we headed over to a casino to have probably the best buffet I've ever eaten.  They had everything you could ever want and it was all delicious!  I thought I was going to eat my brains out, but I managed to be good and not eat a ton, but that dessert table did tempt me.  David pointed out last night that my family is big on food and it's true.  I love food and that was a good place for me!  I thought it was weird they would take us LDS kids to a casino, but it was worth it in my opinion!  All except the fact that we smelled like smoke after we got out.    It was kind of interesting to see the decorations in the building.  There was a huge mill-looking thing that seemed like it was almost as tall as the Rexburg temple!  I asked my mom why casino's seem to have all the coolest decorations and she said it's because that's where all the money is.  It's true, but sad.  But it always makes me very impressed to see the decorations in casino's because whoever designs it really knows their art history!  Most casino's that I've seen have a Roman style architecture with matching statues.  In Vegas, I've heard you can see a perfect replica of the pyramids, Leaning Tower of Piza, Pantheon, Eiffel Tower, and more.  It's just one of those things that I think is really interesting.  But that was day 1!

Wall decorations in the casino

Gigantic mill thing.  Not good picture quality, but it wasn't bright enough inside to get a better one.