MASSACHUSETTS TRIP, Day 7, July 19

It has been another grand day, and this morning I awoke to a 65 degree morning, with some balmy winds--a great departure from the recent clammy humidity of the past few days. Marthe discussed with me her plans for her professional future and the ongoing nature and presentation of her color seminars. She also showed me her materials and became delighted, enthusiastic, and quite passionate about this, her pet project. After spending the morning poring over her materials, we walked down to the Hamilton train station to catch the 1:25 into Boston. Once we arrived at North Station, we changed to the Green line subway and traveled to the Museum of Fine Arts stop at Huntingdon Ave. I had not been in Boston since 1987-1988, when Charles was completing his PhD coursework at Boston University. I really didn't recognize the museum any longer--it had changed so much, had various entrances, and in general, with all its many additions and wings, created an aura of a very disjointed series of spaces without much coherence or rhyme and reason. It was confusing to try to find the various galleries and exhibits we wanted to see. Of course we did not see all the collections, but we did concentrate on the following, since we arrived at about 3:00 and stayed until about 5:30: Jewels, Gems and Treasures, Ancient to Modern; Manet in Black; Silver, Salt, and Sunlight: Early Photography in Britain and France; Paper Zoo; Visiting Masterpieces: Dancing with Renoir; and galleries of European fine arts, craft pieces, contemporary art, among other treasures. In the middle of our stay we stopped and had dessert--a berry and almond tart for me, and a hummus wrap and coffee for Marthe. After visiting the MFA, we crossed to the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, a collection I had visited often when I had lived in Boston, and which I wanted to see again, since a Renzo Piano addition had been built in 2006. Renzo Piano, as any of you familiar with the Nasher Collection in Dallas know, designed that building as well. The addition to the Gardner is a venue in which the public facilities (library, restaurant, exhibition rooms, an auditorium) are housed, and a glass tunnel leads to the Gardner house. I thought the space worked well and was quite stunning, though Marthe did not enjoy it as much as I did. We quickly stepped into the Gardner house to see the magnificent courtyard and John Singer Sargent's famous painting, "El Jaleo," depicting a flamenco dancer and musicians, one of my favorite Sargent paintings. After the afternoon at both museums, we boarded the Green Line subway back to North Station, and stood nearly the whole while, as there were tons of people using the subway. We had to wait a while to move from several stations, as the arrival and departures of various other subway trains crossed our paths. Eventually, we made it to North Station, to find a sea of humanity trying to get to the Aerosmith concert in the vicinity. We walked about 10 minutes to the restaurant Piccolo Nido in the Italian section of Boston--a restaurant whose clients have included Roberto Benigni, Sean Penn, and Rudy Giuliani. Had excellent bruschetta, tiramisu and cappuccino, while Marthe had mussels and pasta and Josh had a veal cutlet. Very fine dinner, and afterwards we walked around in the Italian district and also by North Church (Paul Revere church) before a 30-minute drive home and a final goodbye to Josh, to whom we owed the treat of dinner and a fine evening. And now I have packed. Tomorrow I leave, but not until 6:40 p.m., so Marthe and I are off to Gloucester tomorrow for one final outing. Great day today! SV