farlands | traveling near and far

Now that it is the middle of July, I am tending to my 'year end'  post tradition  that I started at the end of 2016. I don't know why I didn't do a year end recap this time around, although my sense is that it was a busy fall and winter and it took a while to adjust. 2017 was very full on the community theater front. There was the summer musical of  The Little Mermaid,  a fall musical with  Sister Act,  and then I rolled out for an unexpected delight late in the year and early into 2018 with  The Hunchback of Notre Dame . Ah, now as I write that I am clearer as to why 2017 was a blur. Me, Gail and Jen backstage for 'Sister Act' And, because Jeff and I had the wonderful opportunity to host an alumni trip to the Baltic Sea in August of 2017 (many blog posts forthcoming), that was two weeks overseas as well. Say 'Aaahhhh' in Lithuania 2017 felt full and abundant, and frankly a bit overwhelming. I find I tend to get a good set of activit...

As you probably know by now, one of my favorite things to do when traveling is to visit art museums. Although I have a low tolerance for the amount of time I spend in a museum, I usually go for about two hours and let my feet be my guide, leaving the museum map behind after getting a cursory sense of the layout. I mentioned in an earlier post how the hostel I was staying in was close to absolutely everything.That was also true for my museum fix, as the Seattle Art Museum (SAM) was only a five-minute walk away. This was my second museum in a row that featured giant animals that typically inspire fear in humans even at a small size. In this case, the artist was working in the context of the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989. On the other hand, I love (pet) rats, so I had a more positive reaction to this sculpture than most, probably. Mann und Mouse , Katarina Fritsch During my visit, there was also a tour group of teenagers in the museum, which made the experience a bit louder an...