Outing with Mama

Jane and I had our own little outing by ourselves to the De Young Museum to see their exhibit "Masters of Venice." I normally see others women there with little children or infants but I only saw one child who was about 6 years old. Jane definitely got some attention as well as several comments about how she is getting her art exposure early- I am at least trying :-)

I brought the Snugli just in case and it was good that I did because they did not allow strollers in the special exhibit. I went on a Thursday afternoon because I thought it would not be crowded but there were many more people than I had expected so that we still had to try to navigate to read the panels. Jane was great for most of the exhibit, literally just looking around and taking it all in the works of Titian, Tintoretto, and Mantenga. When we got to the last room on Veronese, she started to cry so I took her out into the gift shop and she calmed down in a minute as we walked around the gift shop so I went back in to try to see the last room and I was only able to see a few pieces before she started crying again and I had to take her out. Yet, she was fine when I walked around some of the other exhibits at the museum so I think she is just not a Veronese fan :-)

Overall, I only liked a handful of pieces because most were portraits and the side panels next to them did not have any interesting information at all. Maybe the audio tour was better but I did not want to overextend Jane's good behavior. I loved San Sebastian by Mantenga as well as a portrait of Christ by Titian and some other scenes illustrated from the Bible that illustrated the amazing brushwork and use of color, such as the bright blue velvet on Mary as she handles Christ's body being taken down from the cross. I was glad that William didn't come because he definitely would not have liked it as I thought that it was only ok. I'm glad that I went because I would have wondered what it would have been like and it was worth it to see those few pieces but I am so glad that I have a museum membership so that I didn't think twice about the cost. (FYI- museum membership is the best because you get in 2 people free to special exhibits at the De Young and the Legion of Honor and then general admission any time for both).

Can I just tell you how much I am LOVING the weather- it was 70 degrees in San Francisco and so after the museum, Jane and I wandered around Golden Gate Park for awhile. It is crazy to think that it is February and I was fine walking around with short sleeves and no jacket. Yet another testament as to why California has such a high cost of living to have experiences like that.