Works Of Art and Guatemalan Foods Pt 1

Yesterday, the temperatures outside were decent enough to go for a car ride to the city and take in a few things that we were not able to do the last trip because of time.  Our first stop was the Oklahoma Museum of Art.  It took about an hour and a half to get to our destination.  But once we arrived, we were not disappointed....:-).  The first thing we did was to get our proper "walking gear" in place.

Me........

Chris......

Helen......

It was already getting beautiful before we made it across the street to the museum.....:-).  The city flowers were doing better than mine were in the heat....:-(

It was a short walk over to the building, but the sun was a bit much in just that short period of a walk.

I noticed this huge glass monstrosity through the window of the building.....

This was going to be interesting.  This is what it looked like from the inside of the museum.

I had never heard of this particular artist. I guess those who may be really into art may be really familiar with him.  But it was going to prove to be an exceptional experience.

Let the show begin!  The next few pictures are really going to be a treat for those of you who are into this kind of art work.  I`m a bit disappointed that I was not able to capture the detail that he's done.

But you can get an idea of just how intricate these pieces are......

This was one of my favorites.......

After walking through one area of his work, we came across this.......

and then you turn a corner and run into this........:-)

 It seemed that all of the glass work that he's done has something to do with the sea or ocean....:-)

Deep sea divers have probably seen things that resemble his work mile and miles down under the water....

The flower vases were particularly interesting to me too.....

I tried to get some pictures of some of the flowers that he had created.  The challenge was that while we were allowed to take pictures, we were NOT allowed to use our flashes.

This coral color was quite a bit more striking than what the picture was able to capture...

This looked like something a person would want to walk through.

well, maybe not since it was glass...haha.  But here is the same piece from another angle......

This one reminded me a circular saw blade with a pot top stuck to it......:-)

There were other works of art scattered throughout the exhibit.  This is one of them.  I reminded me of a blueberry slushy thing...without the cup....with octopus legs at the bottom...

Hey! It's a moon jelly.....:-)

When you go into the next room, it's like walking among giant clams......

and those minimity things...aminity....???  whatever.

here's a close up.

 more sea stuff......:-)

I've seen designer plates that look something like this, but in different colors and on plate stands on sofa tables; etc.

If I told you that this was the ceiling of a hallway, would you believe me?....haha

How about now?.........very cool.  I had to lay down on the floor to take this one.  I thought one of the guards was going to run me off, but they didn't.  I asked other visitors to the museum to just step over me if they needed to get past.....ha

Well.............ha

Hey, see bubbles! ....:-) Inside other bubbles.....very cool.

Now, I gotta tell ya, I wasn't exactly sure what this was.  It reminded me of a tall drink that the ice cube had slid out of the tumbler....

beautiful.........love the seafoam and nearly pink colors with the crystal...

This particular display was difficult to see because there were several black balloon looking things along side of the pink ones.  Had I been able to use a flash I'm not sure it would have even been this clear.

Then there were boat loads of bubbles and sea creatures all made of glass......

we stood and talked for a while about how difficult it must have been to get everything into the boat without breaking something.  Perhaps they did break a few pieces trying to put the display together.

close up of the sea creatures....

Helen wanted me to take this shot.  She was quite taken by the uniqueness of it.

and of course just like in the other room, there was this upside down tree thingee hanging on the wall.  Well, at least I think it was. Unless I posted the picture wrong...hahaha.

another shot of the sea creatures in another boat in the same room....

when we came out into the hallway, I decided to take this shot of the tall glass monstrosity that we saw on the way in.  But this time we were at the top of it.

 Scootard was taking a break before we went into the next exhibit.....I think he was getting hungry.  Notice the pose?...ha

The rooms that led from one exhibit to the next were strangely quiet compared to the museums in Europe. The walls there are full of the works of the Masters that studied there and painted for kings and queens.

 next stop......

follow the hoof prints, ya'll.......

oh my!

It's an interactive bull, horse and cowboy. When you pull the rope, they start to do stuff......
.

I couldn't get the whole thing in the frame, but when you pull the rope, the lasso starts to swirl.....haha

 That was pretty wild.....time for something a little more.....well....something else!

ok, nice.......

I wonder what it would have been like to have live in that time and to have had that much wealth.  You know, ladies were expected to get all dressed up just to go sit out on the veranda and read a book!  Thank God for jeans....haha

 Can you imagine being in a feud with someone who is carrying a gun and the both of you have to stop and load your one shot if you happen to miss the first time.  No wonder it made its way to a museum!

The nice thing about being in a museum is that you never really know what to expect when you turn a corner.  Some of the stories of the artist were noteworthy enough for me to take a shot of their  reason behind their work.  This note explains the next picture following .......

and here is the picture.....

We went into another hall and lowe and behold there was more to see.....gotta love this room, though...:-)

Now, I'm not sure, but I think this was porcelaine of some sort.......

not porcelain......

porcelain.....(maybe).  Gotta love the detail in this work.......:-)

I have no idea why I took a picture of this seeing as I think it is ugly.....haha.  Maybe that's why I did it??

Now, THIS!  quite nice- eh?

I was not able to capture the color of this flower, but it was a lavender, purple, creamy, dreamy thingee.....

I should have taken a picture of the back of this kimono, but didn't.  oh well, maybe next time......:-(  At any rate, she seems to be quite thoughtless.  Get it?  hahaha.....

Somebody knew exactly how I was feeling......haha

Wow.....

Here is another noteworthy story.......

and here is the picture of the woman with child......

don't let the size of this picture fool you.  This was the biggest apple I had ever seen!  AND, it was hanging on the wall on our way out of the room.....

I don't know what this guy's story was, but he sure looks like he has one......

We were headed out of the museum and someone had placed some flowers on the table......

and the last attraction at this particular museum was this chandelier.  Although it clearly took quite a bit of time to make this, I just was not that impressed with it......

Well, that's it for this museum.  Stay tuned for part 2!

Riding The Tiny Towns

Our bikes sat for a couple of days as the temperatures were simply too hot to enjoy ourselves staying at 100-106 degrees.  So, it was good to be able to ride in 80 something degree weather.  We washed Ms Vicky and Maj the day before and got them ready to roll again.

Our first stop was a town called Duncan.  It only took us about an 40 minutes or so to get there.  It was still a little warm though and the wind just about pushed me into Texas!  We made it in one piece and decided to take a short break and get some water.

Scootard put a small cooler bag in his bike with one of those freezer thingees.  So, the water was nice and cold.  I was too hot to even try to strip off my gear  for such a short stop.

Here he is.....chillin....ha

We wanted to ride out to a tiny town called Comanche which was just another 15 minutes.  A lot of the towns and counties in Oklahoma are named after the tribes of the first nations people.  It is a tiny little place with not a whole lot going on.  This is a picture of the post office.  I think we saw two cars pass us in the town and not another living soul.  

One of the things that I love about small towns is their love of wall art.  This one is very old as you can tell, but still cute.  I wondered how long it has been there.

We also try to get a shot of the main street of any town we ride through to give our fellow bloggers an idea of what we experienced.

Here is a long shot of one of the main streets.....  Not much going on and this is on a Tuesday!

Our next stop was a tiny town called Temple which took 40 minutes to get there.  I get a little nervous when my gas gage drops below half full.  So, it was time for me to get some petrol.

Scootard doesn't get as nervous as I do about the whole gas thing, but decided to put in a "splash" as he calls it.

The prices here were not terrible compared to other places, although high for the Southwest.  Eat your heart out, Canada! haha

The post office in Temple almost seemed smaller than the one in Comanche if that is even possible!

Here is a shot of the main street.....

Temple has this tiny little museum.  I have no idea what is inside as no one was there to let us in.  But it was true to the size of the town as it was itty bitty as well.

this is the side wall of the museum....

Ms Vicky and Maj were patiently waiting for us to return after our photo shoot......

I decided to get a shot of this plaque just for information sake......

We found a drive in restaurant and decided to stop and get some ice cream.  When Scootard turned around to talk to me, this is what he looked like.  I FREAKED RIGHT OUT!!  I mean I felt them pelting my legs and gear as we were moving, but had no idea that he had this going on.....ha  YUCK!!  Here's to bugs in your teeth!  EEKKKK!!!

We asked if we could use their rest room and also ordered a snack to help cool us off a bit.

Didn't get any of this although it was looking pretty interesting.....

Scootard ordered a hot fudge sundae and it took us no time at all to plow through it.  The sun was coming out full swing and things were heating up a bit.

We hit the road again and started out journey back to Lawton.  On the way, I spotted these space ships complete with antenna! ha

Here's a closer look.  I made sure Scootard was glowing when we left.  You know all the moon dust and stuff might rub off on me!

And of course once we got back home, 30 minutes later, this huge thing was stuck to the grill of my bike...  OMG!!.  I mean really!!!??  I don't know why they come all the way "around" his bike and find me!  He was riding ahead of me for a lot of the trip.  geeze.....I zoomed in close so that I wouldn't have to stand that close to it.  Sorry but bugs make me squeamish.  I have no idea how I ever went camping!   this one was just a tad bit smaller than that big black thing that went up my sleeve......

Scootard decided to dispose of it for me......

I know!!  Is that not the nastiest thing you have ever seen?  I'm glad he changed his mind at the last minute.   The next kiss would have been several years away! haha

see ya next time!