Crystal Bridges

With nothing better to do, we drove to Arkansas on Tuesday. Over the last several months we had read news reports about Alice Walton and the new Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art. A quick glance at Google maps showed that Bentonville was an easy day's drive away, so why not go see for ourselves?

After a lesiurely and pleasant six-hour drive up US 75/69 to I-40 then north on I-540, we were in Bentonville by 4 p.m. I didn't know what to expect, it being the World Headquarters of Walmart, AKA (An) Evil Empire, but the quaint central plaza and the surrounding town square were a surprise. Lots of benches, a fountain, charming shops and restaurants, and the original Walton's 5-10 (now made into a shrine to Sam Walton), what could be nicer?

We planned on spending a few hours at the museum on Wednesday but ended up staying there all day save for a break at dinner.

The buildings and grounds are amazing; we were in awe at what the Walmart billions have created. We ooh-ed and aah-ed at the architecture and enjoyed views from different levels and perspectives. Outside the museum is a beautiful park with lots of trails and elaborate landscaping; inside there are comfy chairs in cozy nooks and plenty of restrooms.

The collection itself is a bit mixed. There are quite a few good pre-Revolution and early U.S. pieces, a few delightful Sargents, and a smattering of other intriguing works, but there's a good deal of humdrum stuff, too. This is not humdrum:

This sculpture by Harriet Whitney Frishmuth is also quite lovely:

We had lunch at the museum café and were again surprised, this time by a tasty lunch in a beautiful setting.

We walked the trails, tried out a few benches, saw some more paintings, and wandered around until it was time to break for dinner at Table Mesa in the main square. Again we were pleasantly surprised, this time by an innovative menu and really good food. We went back to the museum (open until 9 p.m. on Wednesdays) to see what it was like at twilight. We had a last look at the Sargents and a few other pieces then took some farewell snaps from the parking garage.

Lest you think it was all fun and fluff, there were a few sour notes. We had to start our days listening to Fox News blaring its angry outrage in the hotel breakfast room, I saw too many Confederate flags (even one is too many), and local law prohibits the sale of alcoholic beverages except in bars and restaurants.

Thursday morning check-out time was not until noon, so we dawdled. We took a scenic drive through northeastern Oklahoma before making our way back to I-35, Texas, and the nearest Whataburger.

My camera, as usual, was not idle, and here's my Flickr snaps from the trip.

P.S. Oklahoma and Arkansas are much prettier than Texas.

Boston, Briefly

We flew to Boston Saturday morning and are flying back home today. We had no particular reason to come here, but couldn't think of a good reason not to come, either.

Saturday night we wandered amidst the party crowds in Quincy Market before having a great Thai dinner in Cambridge, near where we're staying. Sunday we spent most of the day at the Museum of Fine Arts, marveling at the John Singer Sargent portraits. I especially love the one of Mrs. Inches; I could stand and stare at her for hours on end.

For dinner, we headed to the North End for a pizza at Regina.

We had planned to do more museum-ing on Sunday but, waking up to beautiful blue skies and crisp temperatures, realized it would be silly to spend the day inside. So, transit passes in hand, we set out to explore Boston. We started in Cambridge, where we wandered around Harvard, then back to Lechmere, the park at CambridgeSide Galleria, along the Charles River to Longfellow Bridge and out Broadway to Kendall Square. From there we took the Red Line back to Boston Common, rode a Swan Boat in the Public Garden, ogled the Sargent murals in the Boston Public Library, then made our way up to the Aquarium.

We finished the day with a couple of ferry rides to Charlestown Navy Yard and back and a very pleasant dinner at Legal Sea Foods. To finish our meal, and complete our stay, I had some delicious Boston Cream pie.

If you'd like to see more, here's my Flickr snaps from the trip.

Lunch in Portugal

There are many reasons why I like Portugal, and having lunch is near the top of the list. Visiting a country means getting in tune with its rhythm of life, and I am especially happy to play along and make lunch the centerpiece of my day just as it is for many Portuguese.

Walk through any residential area and you'll find an amazing number of places to eat. My favorite catch-all term for these places -- confeitarias, cervejarias, restaurantes, and the like -- comes from our friend, the soon-to-be-famous travel personality Robert Wright, who calls them 'neighborhood joints.' Somewhat like the ubiquitous bars in Italy, these joints usually have a counter displaying snacks and pastries, making them convenient places to stop in during the day for a quick bite, an espresso, or a glass of wine or beer. There's also anywhere from two to twenty tables, and if the sidewalk is wide enough a table or three outside.

Hungry customers start coming in around 12:30 and by 1:00 the joint is packed and stays busy until 3:00 or so. There's usually a menu, often in several languages, but no one looks at it. The important information is the hand-written sign or blackboard announcing the Pratos do Dia, the Plates of the Day, generally a couple of fish dishes and a couple of meat dishes, maybe a soup, whatever the kitchen was able to get fresh that morning. And the 'plate of the day' is just that, a meal of fish/meat, some potatoes (boiled, roasted, or fried), and a vegetable served on a single largish plate.

After a day or two of experimentation I quickly found what I liked best: a small fish, usually dourada (bream) or robalo (snook), grilled simply with olive oil and perhaps garlic. Each day's lunch was thus a matter of walking up and down the street looking for a place that had the peixe grelhado (grilled fish) that I wanted. If no one had a whole fish, I'd go for a grilled garoupa (grouper) steak. These lunch plates range from about €5 to €7 ($6.50 to $9) and a half liter of house wine is €2 to €4.

Early in our trip we had lunch with Robert as he researched Lisbon's beautiful azulejos, ceramic tile art, for one of his upcoming guides. Not only did he introduce us to the great roasted chicken and hot piri piri sauce at Bonjardim but, more importantly, he helped us decipher the code of Portuguese eating.

Another highlight of our trip was a wonderful dinner at Tia Matilde with our dear friends Ana and Manny. We were lucky to meet them on our first night in Lisbon last year, and since then they have taught us so much about Portuguese life, culture, and food.

As usual, we did a lot of walking and a bit of museum-going, this time to the Museu de Arte Antiga and the National Azulejo Museum. Lisbon is a city of hills ringing a central valley; there are several remarkable miradouros, lookout points, and two of the best are very near our apartment in Largo da Graça. There are few things in life more pleasant than sitting at one of these miradouros and watching the city below, the colors shifting as the sun travels overhead.

After eight nights in Lisbon we took the train to Porto, our first visit there. We had a nice loft apartment in the Santa Caterina neighborhood not far from the Bolhão subway stop and the Via Caterina shopping mall. There was more walking and exploring, strolls across stupendous bridges spanning the Douro River, dinner at Abadia, a glimpse of what may be the world's smallest truck, a leisurely afternoon at the tasting rooms of Taylor and Offley port houses, and a jaunt on our last day out to the beach at Foz.

We had to leave very early Tuesday morning to catch a flight to Madrid and from there back to DFW. By 4:30 pm CDT we were back in Texas, talking wistfully about what a pleasant time we had and when we will go again.

Here's my Flickr snaps from the trip. For even more viewing pleasure, here's the slideshow version.

We're in Portugal

We arrived in Portugal last Thursday. We're having a wonderful time, visiting old friends and seeing new sights. The food is incredibly good. The apartment is perfect. We're in Lisbon until Friday, when we leave for Porto. It's such a delight to just be here that I am having trouble thinking of something to write. While I ponder, here's a few snaps on Flickr to look at.

Our Big Adventure

We flew to San Francisco on Friday and are having a great time with our friends Val and Ron, and Jim and Dana: Friday night it was hamburgers at Gott's before seeing Ron Hacker and the Hacksaws at The Saloon in North Beach. Saturday it was ferry to Sausalito, lunch at Grilly's, up Mount Tam, on to Muir Woods and Muir Beach, then Stinson Beach, a walk around Mill Valley, ending with a ferry back to San Francisco. Sunday it was a drive across the Golden Gate Bridge and lunch at the Golden Egg Omelet House in Novato, then Russian River Valley and visits to Iron Horse Vineyards and DeLoach Vineyards, followed by dinner at River's End Restaurant. Now it is Monday and we will slow down a little, I think. Or maybe not. We'll see.

Even my camera is tired but I have a few photos on Flickr.

Mad about Madrid

If you live in North Texas and would like a quick and easy European getaway, it's hard to beat Madrid. AA has convenient non-stop flights from DFW. The new Exprés Aeropuerto bus service takes you from MAD Terminal 4 to central Madrid for €2 a person. The major sights are in a compact central zone. The great museums are within a five or ten minute walk of each other and a couple of them are free every evening. Madrid is clean and pretty, with an energy that is inviting but never intimidating. In short, DFW -> MAD is so easy that we've already done it twice and are looking forward to doing it again.

Walking around a city is one of my favorite entertainments and Madrid is eminently strollable. We walked from Plaza de Cibeles up the Gran Via all the way to Plaza de España, awed by the architecture. We wandered along the new river walk west of the Royal Palace. We lingered in gathering places like Puerta del Sol, Plaza Mayor, and Plaza Santa Ana. We walked up and down Paseo del Prado and spent delightful hours in Parque del Buen Retiro.

We spent an interesting fifteen minutes watching a trio of pickpockets, three young women in their 20s, at work in Plaza de Cibeles. Laughing and talking, they blended into the crowds crossing the street or gathering at bus stops, looking for an open purse or pocket to snatch from. They finally noticed our eyeing them and eyed us back as they left for new hunting grounds.

Coming out of the city cultural center, I noticed a middle-aged couple fussing at each other. The woman was carrying an infant swaddled in blankets, which I thought a bit odd considering her age. What was even odder was that I looked in at the child as she was cooing to it and saw that it was, in fact, a miniature dachshund, lying on its back staring right back at her.

While we love coming to Madrid, I am still perplexed by the food. Tapas bars are crowded and noisy and confusing and don't appeal to me. Restaurant meals are expensive, with main dishes easily costing €20 and up. I don't understand a lot of the terminology on the menus and translation to English doesn't help. I need to figure out the best way to eat here, or better yet, find someone to take us along and show us the way.

I've had a lazy camera this trip and hardly took any snaps. Here's a few of them on Flickr. And here's a snap of me doing what I do best:

Mileage Run to Madrid

A frequent flyer will sometimes do a "mileage run" to get the miles necessary to get or maintain status with an airline. When the airline sweetens the deal by offering bonuses, the mileage runs multiply. Various offers from American Airlines, for example, have led to a rash of AAdvantage members booking flights from Chicago (ORD) or Dallas (DFW) to Los Angeles (LAX) or San Francisco (SFO). To earn those all-important BIS (butt in seat) miles, some fanatics have gone so far as to book daily round trips between ORD and LAX for five or ten days in a row: fly ORD -> LAX in the early morning, get off the plane but stay in the terminal then board the next flight back to ORD, get a few hours sleep, and start all over again the next day.

I like having status with AA, but I'm not nearly so driven as that. Make me a reasonable offer, though, and I'll gladly plan a trip.

Right after AA announced it was entering bankruptcy, they also decided to offer double elite qualifying miles on all flights through the end of January. It's been a month since we got back from Italy, so we took this as a clear sign that it was time to travel again.

Bueno, entonces, we're off today to Madrid for five nights. The convenient flights are non-stop from DFW to MAD, it's easy to get into the city from Barajas airport, and we found a good deal on a hotel right across the street from the Prado.

I'll be taking snaps and writing more, of course, but until then here's my Flickr photos from our trip to Madrid in March 2010.