Wes & Erica's vacation photo album // GrapeFest & DFW, Texas // September 2026

🍷🍇We headed to GrapeFest ("one of the Top 10 Wine Festivals in the USA", "the largest in the southwest", and "the premier Texas wine experience" according to its website, and to be fair, I think it checked all those boxes) on the last hot week in September. It literally cooled down to 80℉ the day we came back home. Annoying. 😑 Despite the heat, we still managed to have a fun time. And because of the heat, we got to do some additional [indoor] stuff around town while we were there!

The first floor of the hotel is a food hall, restaurant, and event space. The event space had installation art (top left picture)!! 🌵🤠You enter a phone booth and when you pick up the phone, it reads out an old western shootout tale.

GrapeFest is held along Main Street in downtown Grapevine, TX. We stayed in the Vin hotel, which was walking distance to the festival. The hotel is wine themed, so we were greeted with a complementary glass of white. The front desk receptionist (I think her name was Jayden) was super bubbly & friendly. When she found out we were from Oklahoma, she told us she studied meteorology at OU. I'm glad she switched to a career in hospitality; her personality would be wasted in a science lab. She gave us tokens for free drinks at the restaurant (Bacchus), which we used later in the evening. 

Food was good but outrageously overpriced. My 2 (TWO!!!) eggrolls were $13.💸

We didn't do much at the hotel except for a quick meal at the food hall (Harvest Hall). I got eggrolls and Wes got pizza. The eggrolls had lump crab stuffing. 🦀 I was worried it would be fake "krab" but luckily, it wasn't. There was a photo of the food stall's owner along with a little bio about them and how they created their concept next to each stall, which I thought was really neat.

Random historic sites scattered around downtown. 🏫

Okay now onto GrapeFest proper...
🍷It was hot (almost 100℉, on asphalt, with no shade) 🌞-- can we give the sun emoji a frowny face? LOL That was Wes's main gripe about it, well that and there weren't a lot of tasting options. More on that later.
🍷There are random historic landmarks all over downtown, like log cabins and old hearses. I thought the cabins were super interesting. 🚃I wanted to see the inside of the vintage railroad station and train, but it wasn't open because, I think, they were preparing it for rides later in the day.
🍷There were lots of interesting vendors and yummy food trucks all along the street, but we skipped them and chose to duck into the actual shops with air conditioning. (I did end up looking at a couple of the vendors later in the evening.)
🍷My favorite shop was the RTown Gallery. The gallery mostly had contemporary pieces; I liked one of the artist's mixed media portrait collages. 🎨 The prices were the most reasonable I've ever seen at a gallery! I almost bought a little trinket tray for $20 but was too scared it would get broken in my backpack (since I would have to toss it in there along with everything else for the rest of our day out).
🍷We wanted to do the People's Choice tasting/voting, but it was in a stuffy tent and timed. For $32, you could get a commentative glass and 90 minutes to walk around the tent to sample all the wine you could handle. Pretty good deal! I don't drink fast enough to have been able to try all the wineries I would have liked. And, we both would NOT have enjoyed ourselves in the humid tent😡, so we passed.
🍷We also wanted to take the vintage train ride in the evening, but tickets were sold out by the time we got there. We'll know next time to buy them plenty in advance. On that trip, we would have gotten 2 glasses of wine, a charcuterie appetizer, and a romantic & scenic ride for ~$100.
🍷I make it sound like the only thing we did was shop, but we weren't actually interested in the boutiques-- even though I bought cheese balls, some perfume, lip balm, and a pair of pants 😅-- but it was the only way to get respite from the heat, so we stopped in about every couple hundred feet.
🍷The only way to do the wine tastings was to either buy tickets for the scattered event tents (no thanks since they're outdoors) or go into the actual wineries along Main Street to purchase a tasting flight (cool idea, but that got really expensive really fast). We wanted to go into the top 3 rated wineries but ended up skipping Bingham Family Vineyards because there was no seating indoors and you probably know by now how we feel about sitting outside.

The first winery we tried was Messina Hof, one of the top rated and oldest wineries in Grapevine. I wanted to go in there because the building looked old-timey. LOL Wes got the red wine tasting and I got the Grapefest Features tasting. Each came with five pre-selected wines and a commemorative glass. 🍷 Wes's favorite was their GSM (blend of Grenache, Syrah, and Mourvèdre). Mine was Viognier: Private Reserve, then the GSM and Sagrantino Reserva tied for second, Off Dry Gewürztraminer: Artist Series in fourth, and Angel Riesling: Late Harvest in last. It was way too sweet. One of the wines, I think their GSM, won the People's Choice award a couple of years in a row. I took notes on all this so we could return to buy bottles on our way out of town, but then we completely forgot once we got in the car. And I haven't been able to find Messina Hof at any of the liquor shops here 😢

Wes got a pretzel and I got the flatbread for dinner. It took forever for our food to come out. 😠I was soooo hungry when it finally did that I didn't notice if it was good or not. I was just ready.to.eat! Looking at the picture now, it doesn't look that appetizing. LOL

The second winery we tried was Red Dirt Cellars. We went for their 5-pour tasting and dinner. 🍕It got lively in the evening! I think the Harvest Train returned and the tasting tents closed around 8:30pm so everyone streamed into the wineries to continue their night. There was a singer, an older soulful black gentleman, performing covers all night. 𝆕𝅘𝅥𝅱 He kept saying each song was his "last one" but he stayed about an hour after he started packing up his equipment. He had a good voice and knew how to work the audience, all while watching the football game on his phone! We got tickets and a slip of paper to use for each pour; we would review the menu and write down what we wanted next. I preferred Messina Hof's technique of assigning a pre-selected flight because I don't know anything about wine, which ones to choose, or how to order and pair them. My favorite wine was the Landon Pinot Grigio from Ozarks, MO, then Red Dirt Blend and Wildcatter Noir both from the Texas High Plains, Cune Cava Brut from Cavas, Spain in fourth, and lastly Red Dirt Sangria from the Texas High Plains. It was neat to try wines from different regions, but overall I enjoyed my wines at Messina Hof more. Wes got a bunch of different reds (or maybe he tossed a white in the mix) and liked them all.

Along with our fun times at GrapeFest, we spent a couple of days eating and shopping while we were in Texas. 🍴 I saw online that a giant new H-Mart opened in Dallas so that was our first stop. 🛒 There was an arcade and lots of little shops, including a Fuzz Lab, in the H-Mart. I've been wanting to make a hairclip at Fuzz Lab but never had time during our previous Texas trips. This was my chance! Sadly, the employee explained that they take 4 days to properly dry before I can take it home, and it cost about 5x more than what I was expecting. So that's not happening. 😑 Browsing all of the Asian groceries is always a treat, but I enjoyed looking at the home goods & stationary shops more. 🎀 Wes wanted to go to the Galleria mall while we were in Dallas (we also stayed a night at the swanky Westin hotel there). We walked around the entire mall but didn't really do much shopping. I think Wes is more into people watching and I prefer window shopping. The only store that we were both really looking forward to was UNI QLO. 👕

I can't pass up any chance to go yarn shopping so we went to two different local yarn stores on this trip.🧶 The first was Fiberlady (who is a man!) He spins and dyes his own yarn. Most of it is a bamboo & cotton blend. I've never used bamboo yarn before so I picked out a skein to try. We were the only customers in his shop, so he had time to give us a tour of the back where he spins his yarn. This was the first time we've seen spinning & weaving machines. He had several that all did different things. He turned them on for us to show us the process, which was really interesting. 

The other shop we went to was Denton Yarnworks. It is a finalist for "Best New Business" in Denton this year. The shop is a converted house that had a different type of yarn or project in each room -- amigurumi in one room then hand-dyed yarn in another! The shopkeeper was extremely friendly and welcoming. 👋 I told her about me & Lacey's crochet nights, and she invited us to her weekly craft night. I told her that I would LOVE something like that, but we live in Oklahoma. That's when she said she's a transplant, too. She moved to Texas from New Jersey and cannot wear any of her wool sweaters here. She's re-knitting them all in a lighter weight fiber. LOL 

Now onto the best part of every vacation … the food!! 😋 We had delicious authentic handmade dumplings Hong Dumpling House for lunch. It's in the middle of an office park and not where you would think a restaurant would be, but they were busy! I got the spicy squid filling and Wes got kalbi beef. He wanted the kimchi ones but we came toward the end of lunch, and they were already sold out. I didn't see the sign saying you can get the dumplings fried for $1 extra until after we ordered.🥟 I would have gotten 3 of mine fried and the other 3 standard (steamed). Things to remember for next time!

We had dinner at North Italia🍅 (I saw that they're going to open one by Penn Square Mall soon). It was pretty standard Italian food. Wes said his chicken parmesan was better than most places'. The best part of my dish was the crispy capers. The salt and herb topping on our bread was the star of the meal. 🥖 I plan to go to the Penn Square location when it opens just for the focaccia. LOL Our server was a little slow at getting our orders & bringing out food, but she was super nice. 

Our original breakfast plans was to go to Breakfast Brothers one morning and then Park's Coffee Roastery the following morning. The DWF area is large and Breakfast Brothers was going to be waaaay out of our way. 🚗 I learned that Park's Coffee Roastery stopped doing their tours & coffee tastings when I called to book one. So we had to change plans last minute. ☕We ended up at Ida Claire's again. We went for dinner on one of our previous Texas trips. We both loved the dinner menu and I especially liked the vibes & decor. Their breakfast is just as good as the dinner, and my lavender latte tasted so good in its antique teacup. The thick-cut bacon was amazing. All we have left now is to try their lunch menu!

Jupiter House's walls are covered in artists' renditions of album covers (including The Darkness, which you usually don't see) and famous musicians. A huge portrait of Kurt Cobain was right at eye level when you sat on the toilet in the ladies restroom. Unsettling 😶Wes said there was a portrait of someone hovering over the men's urinal, but I don't remember who.

The Buc-ee's in Denton was our last stop on our way out of Texas. We had breakfast downtown at Jupiter House. Its a bakery that specializes in bagels. I feel like there were a million different ones to choose from. I don't remember which one Wes got, maybe the bacon, egg & cheese, and I went with the salmon lox (my favorite). They used the flakey cooked salmon instead of the thinly sliced cured salmon, which made the bagel kind of meh. 😕 But, the veggie cream cheese saved the day! It had so much dill flavor. I wanted to walk around downtown Denton and go into a couple of antique and bookstores, but it was once again too hot to be walking around outside.

GrapeFest was a lot of fun, but I'm glad we planned other activities, too. The only thing I had on my list that we didn't get to was Blooming Colors Nursery & Landscaping. 🌼I am becoming a plant lady and wanted a couple more for my collection. I plan to have a nice garden by next spring! 🌱 We've also been working on the backyard, and Wes wanted to look at some statuary options. But never fear, we will be back in the DFW area soon enough. The art museum in Fort Worth is getting the travelling Treasures of the Pharaoh exhibit (my wildest dreams come true!) and the Dallas art museum is getting a Pompeii  exhibit (a topic Wes is interested in) next spring. 

Wes & Erica's vacation photo album // Shawnee, OK// August 2026

The day before we leave town for an actual vacation is a good time to finally post about our last (mini) trip. 🚗 We took the dogs in for their grooming appointment in August. It takes a couple of hours, so we decided to head out to Shawnee to visit the mummies while we wait. We've been watching The Lost Treasures of Egypt docuseries on National Geographic (currently on the final season😞) and I've been really wanting to see some artifacts in real life. Lacey reminded me of the Mabee-Greer Museum of Art; we supposedly went in high school, but I do not remember anything about it. A quick google search confirmed that the mummies were still there and open to the public. Hooray!!

We stopped by the 👢Kicks 66👢statue on our way out of town. It's cool but probably looks better at night when it's lit up. Part of me wants to drive around to visit all the Route 66 statues they're putting up all over the state, but another part of me is okay with just seeing pictures of them on Instagram. LOL 

When I was planning our day out, I picked two activities for us - the art museum and the Monks' Market at St. Gregory's Abbey. I didn't realize they're on the same campus! We started with the abbey. It was still pretty early, but with it being the hottest summer on record, it was already 100℉ by the time we got there.🔥 🌞I wanted to walk around and look at all the old architecture, but it got unbearably hot within the hour. 😫 We still managed to walk around a bit before heading inside. The Monks' Market was a lot smaller than the website made it out to be, but it still had some neat stuff. There was an arts & crafts section with crocheted items, the thought of a group of monks having a crochet night made me laugh a bit. I bought some lotion and k-cups. ☕The coffee selection was the largest part of the market, and I plan to return in the winter or spring to buy some more (it'll be nice to walk around campus when Oklahoma isn't under an Extreme Heat Warning).

The tools & devices used to make the host were my favorite part of the abbey's history lesson. 

There was one other visitor at the abbey with us. He suggested that we walk along the hallways to see the old photographs and history. We learned about Fr. Greer and his role at the abbey & museum. I also took the self-guided tour of the church. ⛪The church was small, but jam packed with art and relics. Each chapel was like a mini-museum dedicated to a saint or monk. One of the chapels had the ropes to ring the big church bells. The three white ropes were used to signal daily mass and other normal events. The red rope was reserved funerary purposes and for when a monk passed. 🕭 The stained-glass windows were part of the self-guided tour but it was a little overcast the day we went, so it wasn't as bright or colorful as it normally would be. Still very beautiful though! 🕈 One of the monks was playing the organ while I walked around the church, which was very neat to have live background music. 

The last thing I did at the abbey was walk the labyrinth. (Wes gave up and headed to the museum lobby to wait for me... it was probably 105℉ by this point 😡) On the way into the center of the labyrinth, I was meant to meditate on things I need to let go of, then when I got to the center, I was supposed to reflect on how much more calm & peaceful I felt. I did both of those things, but I was completely drenched in sweat, so I cut through the path to walk out. I don't remember what I was supposed to meditate on as I exited to return to the hustle & bustle of real life. St. Gregory's Abbey is an interesting (and free!) way to spend an afternoon. I definitely recommend going, but not in the summertime because none of it is properly air conditioned. 

The vase on the top left was used to store preserved salted eggs, which is one of my top favorite Chinese foods, and made me very hungry because we were nearing lunchtime. 🥚

The little statue on the bottom left represents my daily anxiously discombobulated state. 😫 But the ivory girl in the center is the cool collectiveness I strive for.

And the shrunken heads were just too weird to not take a picture of. When the travel brochures say this museum has variety, they mean it!!

Now onto the art museum! 🎨The museum is small but has a ton of neat stuff... all types/genres of art from all over the world. I liked that it was condensed. I felt like I could spend more time with each piece and it was nice to not have to walk around so much after touring the monastery. Fr. Greer studied art in France and travelled a lot. 🌍 He knew that his fellow monks and community in Oklahoma wouldn't get the same opportunities as he did, especially in the 1800s, so he collected artifacts from his travels and brought them back to start the museum. The best part was that the museum actually felt like a random grouping of souvenirs brought back from a lifetime of travels. I could imagine Fr. Greer being like, oh this painting has significance and would also look great next to this vase!

The first artifact he acquired was from Egypt. 𓁁 The museum has three sarcophagi with two intact mummies. They were the coolest things I've seen in a while. 😮 I am obviously no archeologist or Egyptologist, but felt like I could be in the moment. I remembered all the random nuggets of information I learned from the National Geographic docuseries and related them back to the items in front of me. 𓀴 I could feel how astonished the archeologists felt when they discovered the tombs and how careful they had to be to lift the mummies out, like I was part of the team in episode 5... maybe I let my imagination wander off too far. LOL We were the only ones at the museum, so I got to linger at the mummy exhibit for as long as I wanted. Super cool! 

My favorite of the three.

After I had my fill of wonder and awe at the museum, it was time for lunch. We went downtown and ate at The Owl Shoppe. 🦉 It had just opened for lunch and the restaurant was already packed! I thought this would be a sign we'd have a delicious meal, but it was just so so. 😒 I got the avocado steak tacos and Wes got the quesadilla. His came with a side of chips & salsa. The salsa used chili powder instead of actual peppers so it had a weird gritty texture (I tried a bite). Wes said he didn't mind that, but he didn't like how bland it was, and it could have benefited from some garlic and lime. My tacos were also really bland. Their redeeming qualities were the fresh made guac and street corn. We saw the chef cutting kernels off the cob to make the street corn as we walked in. That corn was the best part of the meal!

There were a couple of antique shops that I wanted to explore while we were downtown but camp called not long after lunch ended saying the dogs were cleaned and ready to go home. We managed to visit the Junk n' Treasure antique shop before we headed out of town (saw some interesting stuff but nothing worth buying). I also wanted to try the ice creamery but we were both too full for dessert. 🍦 All in all a successful day out. Next up, we're going to Grapevine, TX for their annual GrapeFest wine festival!!🍷🍇

I was so excited for the mummies that the actual art in the art museum became an afterthought. LOL There were lots of gorgeous paintings though. I almost forgot to include them in this post!

Wes & Erica's vacation photo album //DFW, TX - Art//March 2026

We went to the 🎈Balloon Museum: Let's Fly Dallas🎈 after lunch on the first day we were on our trip. It was a Tuesday around 3pm. Taking vacation in the middle of the week with no other public or school holidays is my absolute favorite! Besides us, there was only a pair of teens, another couple, and like 2 or 3 families at the art exhibit, and we all came in staggered times, so we had each of the rooms (mostly) to ourselves. Although, ironically, I kind of wish there was another couple or two with us in some of the rooms because several of the immersive activities were for multiple people, so it was hard for me to play by myself (Wes was too cool to join in 😒). Each room housed a balloon and/or air themed installation. I took pictures of each one with descriptions below, except for 3 - a VR video we watched (there was nothing to take a picture of), the one above of the inflatable polygons (it was pretty boring), and a room with an upside-down red tree (also boring). 

MY FAVORITE!!! OMG

The first room we entered was the best. It was a tunnel of mirrors with changing colors. I could have stood in there forever; so so pretty!!😍 Like, how do I get one of these installed at home? LOL The swirling lights were made by AI using tons of data from Excel spreadsheets. I texted my boss & coworker that I literally can't get away from Excel, not even on vacation! LOL

You can't walk from a bright mirrored tunnel into a dark room with two weird objects and not feel a little let down. 😕

The next room was pretty disappointing after the light tunnel. It was a giant Fleur de Lis with a kaleidoscope in the background. The kaleidoscope was made from images of naked dolls and the placard read that it symbolizes how the artist is truly exposed when we view her art.

The placard stated that this must have been what dinosaurs danced under. 🐉

As weird as the Fleur de Lis room was, the next one was the worst. 😑 I mean, the art was cool but the concept behind it was a bit creepy. It was a humungous disco ball that slowly inflated and deflated. It looked really neat and the entire room reflected it's light. The creepy part is that it represents the female orgasm. The artist said, Her Joy, over & over again and it played out of a speaker at the base of the ball. The tone and inflection of the words elongated as the ball inflated & deflated. The speaker was loud so we heard it the next few rooms, too. It felt like we stumbled into someone else's intimate moment and really should go, but we couldn't leave.

I tried to take some pictures to show how small I was compared to the inflated faces but I'm not sure if my lackluster photography skills did the trick.

Next, we walked into a plain room with some cartoon faces. We were meant to feel small amongst the giant smiles. The ceiling was domed inward to make the illusion work. 👀 An aside, I am the very slow and annoying museum goer who reads each placard, which is why I remember all the artists' intents and concepts behind each room. I won't read it if the art is self-explanatory, but I definitely will with this contemporary stuff. 

The next room reminded me of Yayoi Kusama's work, and I was really glad to get into a room that I enjoyed. (I wasn't impressed with anything we saw after the initial light tunnel, and I started to worry this was a waste of our afternoon.) I loved the feeling of standing in the middle of the glass balls; I must just like anything with mirrors. 😀 I think it was after this that we went into the VR room. We watched a video where we flew through Balloon Land (it reminded me of the Candyland boardgame) with inflatable versions of landmarks like the Eiffel Tower, and I think at one point, the Queen ate us. LOL The rest of the rooms were great, and the immersive/interactive part of the exhibits really ramped up. Oh, and I think the room after this was the first one where you could no longer hear the Her Joy orgasm blaring in the background. Yay!🎉

 🦋There was a giant LED butterfly hanging from the ceiling in the next room. You had to sit on a bench with some buddies and swing to light up the butterfly and make its wings flap & change colors. Wes wasn't super into it (or in to this this part of our trip in general) but I couldn't operate the butterfly by myself, so he had to help. There were lots of patchwork pillows scattered around for spectators to lay back and watch the butterfly take flight. Since we were the only ones in the room, we couldn't swing and watch, so we skipped the watching part.

These weren't supposed to be anything but they reminded me of a tardigrade floating through space.

The next room had a row of giant inner tubes and nothing else; it was completely white with some gentle music in the background. 🩰The artist described it as a "mesmerizing ballet", which sounds ridiculous, but I felt it. The inner tubes slowly undulated with the music. It was really simple but one of my favorite rooms in the museum.

Super hard to manage the ball on my own, but I did it!

After the peaceful tardigrade dance, we moved into a room of chaos. 😲This was the first room where I wished to discard my introvert ways and play with strangers. LOL The room had an extremely large beach ball with charcoal nibs sticking out. The point was the work as a team to guide the ball around and draw a picture. I was wearing a white shirt (that I sewed myself 💅) so I probably shouldn't have been playing with charcoal, but the museum employee told me there was a wash station right outside this room. Wes didn't want to play so I was on my own. The walls and ceiling were completely marked so I wanted to draw my picture on the floor.✎ It took a lot of effort to bounce the ball all the way down, but I managed a couple of lines. LOL

An inflatable city was in the next room, or at least what the artist imagined an inflatable city would look like. 🏨We were encouraged to walk around, over and under all the "buildings". I liked the colors & geometric patterns, and the eyes were cool, but this probably isn't a city I'd move to. LOL The tunnel out of the city lead to one of those desk perpetual motion machines, like the one with the balls that swing back & forth.

I really wished I had someone else to play with in this room because I couldn't push all the balls in time to get their perpetual motion thing going. 🏃I ran around like a madwoman swinging them all but couldn't manage it.🏃 Right as I was leaving, a small child & her mom came in. I almost went back to see if the mom would help me but I was also afraid that all the balls I left wildly swinging in there would knock over her child, so I quickly fled the scene. 😰

I brought home a pink souvenir Ginjo magnet. She lives on our fridge now with all our other travel trinkets.

Next, we entered the alien land of Ginjos. Their giant eyes followed us as we walked around their whimsical land. 👀 They were made from those stand-up punching bags so they wobbled about as we walked by. Wes noticed that the mural on the wall was one continuous painting. I assumed that it looped around but all four walls were different. Wes said this was the only exhibit that he actually felt "immersed" in. I, on the other hand, am a sucker and eat this stuff up.

This is probably tied with the Excel spreadsheet light tunnel as my favorite room in the museum.

The next room was a cyclone.🌪 I didn't get it at first because we walked in right after one ended and before it started up again. The balloons started swirling and flying all over the small room! I know it was just balloons and air, but the effect of them combined with how small the room is was just so neat!😲 Wes told me to walk right in the middle of it for a perfect photo op (ok, I came up with the photo op part, but don't I look cool in the top left picture!) Wes really doesn't like installation, contemporary, or immersive art but when pressed, he did admit that this room was his favorite.

❤Emo ❤Disco ❤Ball pit❤

After we left the cyclone, we walked down a long hallway to the grand finale! It was an enormous ball pit with strobe lights & disco balls that flashed in a light show every 10 minutes ❤ I am an only child so I'm used to playing by myself, and am comfortable in my own company, but man, did I wish for some friends to frolic around in this with me; in fairness, Wes was a good sport and did jump in for a bit. Regardless, I still had a blast wading through the balls, tossing them in time with the lights, and laying back to watch the show.

I wasn't 100% in love with the Balloon Museum-- some rooms were lame, but the rooms that I did enjoy, I truly ENJOYED 💓 And Wes & I got to be pretend Texans for the day. LOL The lady at the ticket counter asked if we were TX residents. I said no, and she asked if we'd like to be. I assumed she was wanting us to donate to the Chamber of Commerce or an art fund, but when I asked her to clarify, she was like, if you say you are, you'll get a discount. So, we lied and saved $8. 😂

The reason why I decided on Dallas in March was for the International Surrealism exhibit at the art museum. The starfish wearing the high heel was my favorite piece in the collection. 👠 The other 4 paintings were also super neat!

The other museum we went to, while still my idea, was more Wes's style. The next morning, we headed downtown for the Dallas Museum of Art (with no pretend resident discount 😒). There were two temporary exhibits that I wanted to see - International Surrealism (Wes was actually pretty excited for this one, too) and Constellations (contemporary jewelry). Our tactic of going on a weekday completely backfired on us, as it must have been school field trip day. The museum was overrun by teens😖; there was probably at least 2 or 3 high schools there. Luckily, they were all behaved and old enough to have assignments so instead of running around, they were walking with their teachers and completing their worksheets.

Along with the temporary exhibits, the museum just acquired some pieces by Roy Lichtenstein. This was the complete opposite of yesterday's experience -- Wes is a huge fan of the pop artist, while I was just meh. 😂  

I immediately recognized the Miró and Dalí (top) and Wes gravitated toward the Massons (bottom)

We headed into International Surrealism first. 😵 Salvador Dalí is the only Surrealist I am familiar with, but I like the movement so I knew I had to know some other artists. I didn't see anything familiar until I saw the Miró. Wes likes André Masson, and there was a couple of his works on display, too. Hard to see in the picture above, but his drawing of the hand holding the mermaids is a good one.

🎨 I won't ramble on about the Surrealists and how much I admire their imagination and ability to literally paint their random scattered thoughts, so above are some more works and we'll move onto the next exhibit.💍 Actually, just as we were about to walk into the jewelry room, a huge group of students went in... so we veered away and revisited some of our other friends at the museum. 

Wes & I have been watching the Lost Treasures of Egypt on Disney+ so it was cool to see the artifacts here on display and kind of know a little bit about how the archeologists come to find and study them.

I had to say hi to the mummy (there was a group of students who were also very impressed by her) and Wes went to the Japanese and Hindu art rooms. 👹 I'm glad we've already seen everything on previous trips because it was difficult to navigate with a bunch of teens running around everywhere.

The middle left broach and bottom necklace was all over the DMA website & Instagram for promo, so I assumed that we'd see them along with a handful of other pieces but there was SO MUCH MORE in Constellations. 

After a quick run through of the second & third floors of the museum, we headed back downstairs for the Constellations jewelry exhibit.💠 I assumed the exhibit would have a couple of really innovative and creative pieces ... like "a couple" as in maybe 10 or 20. Oh no... there was probably over 500 pieces of jewelry on display.💎It was insane and probably way too much to take in in one go around. 

One of my pen pals collects pressed pennies; Lorie, I couldn't find a pressed penny machine on our trip but I took the picture of the penny necklace (top left) for you! And the bottom right pin cushion broach and center sewn cloud necklace #yaysewing ✂

As we walked in, a museum staff member was folding these gigantic pieces of paper into accordions. She told us they were the descriptions for each piece of jewelry and asked if I wanted one. I wish I took a picture of me holding the foldout paper because it looked ridiculous. 😂 Imagine a cartoon of a stereotypical tourist holding a comically large map. At first, I read the description of each piece of jewelry, but it got too overwhelming after the first 15-20 items.

The exhibit was organized into where on the body the jewelry would be worn. So, all the necklaces in one room, headdresses in another, then all the rings, etc. I liked that part, but within each room, everything seemed haphazardly displayed. 😫 When I was following along with the foldout, I had to go from piece #3 along one wall to the complete opposite wall to find piece #4. You know how most museums try to tell a story and guide the viewer through each exhibit with a path; it might not be a marked path, but it still subconsciously guides your eyes & feet... well, there was absolutely none of that here. I had no idea where my eye was supposed to go toward and I felt like I must have missed something because I was just bouncing around from the wall to the center of the room back to the wall.

Wes wanted to show me the top two pieces - the necklace made from real cicadas and the necklace made from egg cartons. I liked the bottom display that showed jewelry made from everything in an egg carton.

One more gripe and we'll move onto the pros. The rooms were HOT😡 not like, oh it's a little warm in here, but legitimately hot & stuffy like the thermostat was set to 80℉ and it was physically uncomfortable to be in there (maybe the materials and gems needed to rest at a certain temperature?). I started sweating toward the last leg of displays, but I paid my $20 and I was going to look at each piece of jewelry. So I powered through. LOL 

I really liked how the artists stretched the boundaries of what "jewelry" could be. 💎None of the pieces could be worn in a practical setting but they just looked so damn cool 😎 I especially like the pieces that were made from unconventional materials, like egg cartons and recycled plastic bags. I'm ending with what I felt were the most spectacular pieces (above).