Wes & Erica's Vacation Photo Album - Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel: The Exhibition (Kansas City) - April 2022

Immersive art exhibits are the new hot thing and I've been wanting to go to one, but the only ones that have been available have been Van Gogh (not a fan of the Impressionists) and Frida Khalo (would have loved to see that one but it was in Dallas and not at a convenient time for us to get away). I was super pumped when I learned that there would be an experience in Kansas City... on our anniversary month... when we had a legitimate excuse to go somewhere and do something nice. Perfect!!

I always assumed the snake from the Adam & Eve story was a traditional snake. Michelangelo painted him as half snake and half human. I guess that makes more sense since snakes can't talk or have hands to hold apples. 

The Chapel Sistine (I guess they couldn't legally call it the Sistine Chapel) exhibit was advertised as a floor to ceiling reproduction of each of Michelangelo's frescos. I guess it wasn't exactly "immersive" since it didn't have any projections, lights, or 3-D effects, but it was still supposed to be a larger-than-life experience. Sadly, it wasn't. 😕 I still REALLY really enjoyed it, but the marketing was a little misleading. 

The exhibit had licensed reproductions of each one of the frescos. They were laid out in order from one corner of the ceiling to the other. Each one had an accompanying map that showed where it is located on the ceiling and a brief explanation of the painting and it's artistic and religious significance. I think they were reproduced using a mix of photography and a high-tech printing technique.

My favorite frescos were the three creation ones (Separation of land from sea, Separation of light from darkness, and Creation of the sun, moon, and planets). The Separation of light from darkness fresco is unique in that we're seeing God rising above us. The perspective in the other frescos show us looking straight onto the scene. Wes thought the "from below" perspective of Separation of light from darkness was neat but he said that the Sistine Chapel wasn't his thing. He isn't into religious art and said the colors were too dull. I really enjoyed it. The frescos are gorgeous!! I thought the reproductions were amazingly well detailed and it was cool that we could see the cracks in the paint and original brushstrokes; I also thought it was neat that you could tell which frescos have been restored more than others.  

Wes & Erica's Vacation Photo Album - Country Club Plaza (Kansas City) - April 2022

Wes & I have been married for 7 years!! 💖💟👫💘💕 We went out for a nice dinner on our actual anniversary date and took a quick weekend trip to Kansas City for more celebrations. (Side note: Dallas, TX was my favorite quick weekend road trip destination, but Kansas City, MO & KS has overtaken it; just as much fun stuff to do, restaurants, culture & art but with waaaaay less traffic and construction.) We went to the Country Club Plaza shops in search of a new leather and/or bomber jacket for me. Wes bought me one ages ago when we first started dating and it finally got to the point where it desperately had to be replaced. I should have known that the shops would be showing their spring looks and there wouldn't be any jackets for sale but oh well. 🤷 While we were there, we ate at a bunch of restaurants (my sole reason for travelling) and visited the Sistine Chapel art exhibit (more on that in next week's blog post).

This was our third trip to the Country Club Plaza but our first time to actually spend a day walking around. The Plaza has a mix of high-end shops, restaurants, boutiques, and a lot of outdoor art. We went into a few of the shops but mostly just window shopped. The only things we bought were for the dogs. LOL A majority of the shops close at 7pm so if you really want to shop & explore, it will probably take two days of walking around. 

Since it was springtime/Easter season, there were lots of rabbit statues everywhere. They were each named, which I thought was cute. There was also a "Heart of KC" exhibit where storefronts each had a heart painted in the theme of what they sell. 

Outdoor art is definitely cool, but the highlight of our vacations is always the food. 🍖🍔☕🍪🍗 Our first stop was lunch at Shake Shack. My cousin (who lives in Australia) recommended that we eat at Shake Shack when we took our road trip to Las Vegas about 7 years ago and that recommendation always stuck with me. We ate at the one on the Strip and it has been my favorite burger place since. Too bad there isn't one in Oklahoma. 😔 Earlier that week, Wes & I had a conversation where we ranked fries in order of preference. Crinkle cut fries were on the bottom of my list. I had forgotten that Shake Shack's fried are crinkle cut and I was momentarily disappointed but theirs are sooooo good. I suppose crinkle cut fries aren't the worse anymore. Our lunch was so awesome. I would rank it as the best meal we had the entire weekend. 😋

I've decided that two things I need on each & every vacation is a tokodoki brand Unicorno figurine and boba tea. We got my Unicorno at Barnes & Noble and then headed to Bruu for boba tea. Their drink special was the Anchan strawberry milk tea with rainbow jellies. I had no idea what an Anchan strawberry tastes like but the drink in the picture was really pretty so I ordered it. It was delicious!! 😋 Probably the best flavored milk tea I've had in a while. The rainbow jellies weren't as good as traditional boba but still very tasty. Bruu didn't have any dairy-free options, so Wes went and got a cold brew at Made in KC Marketplace. It was a neat shop that had a café, bar, and all local goods. It had the cutest mugs and t-shirts, jewelry, candles, etc. Great place for souvenir shopping, but we didn't buy anything (we suck as tourists LOL).

For dinner, we went to Fogo de Chão. I was unaware of this highly popular steakhouse, but Wes said it was top notch. Oklahoma has Texas de Brazil so I was at least familiar with the Brazilian churrascaria concept. Maybe it was because we went on prom weekend and maybe it was because the restaurant was insanely busy, but I was NOT impressed. The food was similar to Texas de Brazil; it was good but not worth all the hype. The only things that stood out were that the lamb and chicken were marinated in a different (maybe tastier) blend of spices and they served this amazing grilled mozzarella dipped in honey.  Wes really liked our meal. I did too; I am not saying anything bad about the yummy grilled meats, but the vibe of the restaurant really ruined it for me. 

We had made reservations for 8:15pm but had to wait a while to get seated. Strike one. The restaurant itself was filthy. Strike two. The bathrooms were a disaster and there was food and trash on the dining room floor. The marketplace salad bar wasn't fully stocked, and our waitress forgot to bring out one of the complimentary side dishes. 😒 And, the bar was out of gin so they couldn't make the cocktail I ordered (a featured cocktail on the menu... so I was unsure why or how they could be out of the essential ingredient to make it). Strike three. After dinner, we headed back to the Intercontinental hotel. This has been our hotel for each of our Kansas City trips. Its very nice and literally across the street from the Plaza. You can park in the hotel parking garage and walk, which is the only way to do it since parking and driving in the Plaza is a nightmare. 

Before we went, we took a look at the Plaza directory and picked out the restaurants we wanted to try. One was Sweet Kiss Brigadeiro (a Brazilian bakery). We wanted to go there for breakfast and coffee so that was the plan for the next morning. We waited around until it opened... then waited about five minutes more... and then another few minutes. After a while, we decided that either its hours needed updating or it was out-of-business. So instead, we went to Messenger Coffee Co. for breakfast. We both wanted a chorizo burrito but they were out of chorizo so I got a chocolate chip toffee cookie & a chai tea and Wes just got a cold brew. My cookie was really good, but the chai had too much cinnamon in it. It was my fault, the barista asked if I wanted cinnamon and I said yes. Wes said his cold brew was good but not as good as the one from Made in KC Marketplace.

We also went to the Sistine Chapel exhibit but that will be for another post. We drove about an hour out of our way to go to Auntie Rita's Jamaican restaurant for lunch on our way home. We had planned to go there when we drove to Lincoln for the Ghost concert, but I was horribly sick and we had to skip. We made our way to downtown Salina, KS and everything looked closed. 😓 I checked and double checked the restaurant's hours online and it said they were open, so we parked and walked in. We were literally the only customers in the entire place. It was 3pm on a Sunday so admittedly a weird time to eat but still... I've never eaten at a restaurant where there was no one else in the dining room. The guy behind the counter was extremely friendly and gave us some pointers on what to order since we've never had Jamaican food and were from out of town. I got the BBQ pork and Wes got the jerk pork meal. We got the "regular" size and the portions were ginormous!! I can't imagine what a large meal consists of. We both really liked the food and I even ate the plantains (which I don't like). Wes said that he liked that the coleslaw was marinated in vinegar and blend of spices instead of traditional coleslaw dressing.

Overall, a fun and appetizing weekend getaway. Happy anniversary 💗 and looking forward to 70 more years of being married. 

Wes & Erica go to Tampa, FL, part 3

Well, actually this post will be about sightseeing in St. Petersburg, Florida (sightseeing in Tampa was last week's blog post, here and here) ...and mainly pictures from the Dalí Museum. Earlier this year, I heard an advert on the radio about St. Petersburg & Clearwater. One of the main attractions was the Salvador Dalí museum and I was determined to go. I fell in love with Dalí's art when I studied abroad in Spain many moons ago. My friends and I went to his museum in Figueres and it captivated my imagination. The Dalí Museum did not disappoint. We ended up doing a couple of other things while we were in St. Petersburg.

We decided to go to the museum on a Sunday to experience the "Mimosas and Masterpieces" brunch. Its supposed to be an artisanal brunch using local ingredients that are currently in season. Sadly, it wasn't even half as great as I thought it would be. First of all, the waitress couldn't explain the specials to us, which was crazy because there is no brunch menu... all that we had to choose from was what the chef decided to whip up that morning and she had no idea what it was. 😒 Secondly, the service was extremely slow. And thirdly, our food was just meh. Brunch was: a grilled cheese sandwich that was soaked in olive oil and used a Spanish cheese (Manchego, maybe) that wasn't melted all the way, an average mimosa and the only thing that was super tasty - a artichoke bisque with a walnut pesto swirl.

After brunch we explored the museum. We started outside in the garden, which had a few sculptures, then wandered around the ginormous gift shop. There were two special exhibits at the museum: a virtual reality tour of a few of Dalí's paintings (we put on virtual reality headsets and followed these dots to "go into" Dalí's paintings; it was super cool but we had to take off our glasses so I couldn't see the dots very well and I suck at video games anyway so I would have had a hard time following the dots with or without my glasses. I think Wes had a much better time at it than I did) and the Midnight in Paris exhibit, which was a collection of artwork from Dalí's contemporaries in the Surrealist movement. Wes really enjoyed Midnight in Paris but I instantly learned that I'm not a fan of surrealism... I apparently just like Dalí's art and no one else's. LOL

The main galleries were absolutely memorizing. I felt like I stood and gazed at each work for an hour but we actually went through it all at a remarkably quick pace. We were only in the main galleries for about two hours and I expected the museum to take the entire day. There was a ton of Dalí's work, many smaller paintings and drawings and eight masterworks. The masterworks were huge wall-sized paintings (his famous ones: Gala Contemplating the Mediterranean Sea which at Twenty Meters Becomes the Portrait of Abraham Lincoln and The Discovery of America by Christopher Columbus among others). My favorite piece is Sentimental Colloquy.

After the museum, we walked around St. Petersburg, did a little souvenir shopping (and A LOT of window shopping, it was Sunday so a bunch of the cute boutiques were closed) and sat at the marina at Demens Landing Park, which was the closest we could get to the ocean because we were not dressed for the beach. We ended up at the Sundial mall for lunch. There were a few upscale shops at Sundial but I wasn't feeling posh enough to go in them. We had lunch at Locale Market. Wes got a burger and I got tacos. Lunch was much much yummier than brunch was.

Our evening activity was Enchant Christmas at Tropicana Field. When I was researching activities to do, this came up as a "Christmas market" so I was thinking it was a local craft show. Oh no, it is so much more. There was a craft show (which was actually quite disappointing; no unique vendors. I think I've become a craft show snob because I've done so many myself) and food court (think gross concession stand food) but the main attraction was the light maze. I'm not a "get in the Christmas spirit" kind of person, but even I was impressed by the light maze. It was really rad and completely  made up for the lackluster craft show and food. The maze took up the entirety of the stadium and featured HUGE lighted snowflakes, Christmas trees and reindeer. All beautiful,colorful and full of holiday cheer. Wes noted that they used non-traditional Christmas colors so there wasn't an onslaught of red and green, which he appreciated. The premise was that all of Santa's reindeer got loose and we had to walk around the maze to find them. About every five minutes or so "snow" fell inside the maze. It was extremely busy so everyone just bumbled around instead of following a path to the reindeer. But it wasn't really a maze (more like a huge open space with some guidelines as to where to go) so it was okay to wander wherever. We walked around quite a bit and found all nine reindeer.

St. Petersburg makes for a good day trip but I wouldn't suggest planning for more than a day as there aren't very many tourist attractions. Its mostly shopping and dining. We spent two days in Tampa but we probably could have done everything in one day. I used to over plan for our trips and we were more exhausted than relaxed after a vacation. I've dialed it back and I only book one tourist attraction per day. It was nice to have the downtime but I sort of feel like we spent more time in the hotel than we did out and about, which was a tad bit boring. I need to find the medium between "aggressively sightseeing" and "lazy tourist". All in all, I think we had a nice time in Florida. We both really enjoyed the food (I've never had Cuban food until visiting). I'm sure the weather was supposed to be nice but I thought it was way too hot, especially for December! One last thing to note is that the Ubers were exceptionally clean, like I don't think I've ever ridden in vehicles as clean as the ones we got. So that's it for birthday #35, looking forward to 2020!

Wes & Erica go to Tampa, FL, part 2

December was a trying month (but we don't need to talk about that..), regardless, I am determined to travel on my birthday no matter what, and I wanted to celebrate another completed craft show season, so off to Florida we went!! 🌞 I think we did a little less than we usually do when we travel but we both still enjoyed the trip. We only went to three activities -

Coppertail Brewing Night Market-
Coppertail is a local brewery in Ybor, FL. Every second Friday evening, the brewery opens its back parking lot to crafters and artisans for a night market. This was a really fun event with good customer turnout, Oklahoma breweries take note (and allow RagsReborn to be a vendor 😉). There was a good variety of vendors--about 30-40 of them--and they were all handmade. The weather was amazing - 70℉, cool with no wind. The only weird thing was that not many of the vendors were selling Florida themed stuff. I was surprised there wasn't any tshirts, stickers or any of the other usual crafty items with the state outline of Florida printed on them. There was a local rescue there with a litter of eight-week old boxer/German shepherd puppies. They were so cute in their Christmas bandannas! There was only one food truck at the market (they preferred that everyone eat in the taproom but it was PACKED and I was too hungry to wait in line). The food truck was a pizza one. They made our pizzas to order in a little portable brick oven. We ordered a margherita pizza but it didn't have basil. I instantly didn't like it for that reason, that and the crust was burnt. We also got beers (of course, we were at a brewery!). Wes ordered a Day Swim, a coffee & vanilla porter that was pretty good and tasted as expected. I got the Florida Special, which was just your average blonde beer. Nothing special about the beers but the night market was worth going to.

Tampa Art Museum-
The art museum was pretty good but also really small. It was only one floor and we went through it all in about an hour. The gift shop was bigger and had more interesting stuff than the museum did. LOL Wes really liked the Greek & Roman vessels and other statuettes (above). He liked the use of the color black in the artifacts. My favorite thing at the museum was the mummy. Well, it was only a sarcophagus. When the explorers found it, there was no mummy inside. I think if there is a mummy in a museum, it will always be my favorite part of the museum. The drawings on the sarcophagus were really detailed and told an intricate story but I've forgotten it now.

The special exhibit at the museum was a collection of Haitian voodoo flags. They were much more colorful and bejeweled than I thought they'd be (but I know literally nothing about Haitian culture or voodoo so who am I to judge). All of the flags were decorated using either beads or sequins. Many of them depicted St. Jacques who was the leader of the Haitian revolution.

The Florida Aquarium-
The aquarium was amazing and completely worth going to if you ever are in Tampa. The place was gigantic with eight different areas to explore. There was a really good variety of animals and sea life to view. We started in the wetlands section and wandered all the way through to the "Dragons of the Sea" section (my favorite), we skipped the splash pad and 4-D movie theater even though they were included in our ticket. We saw everything from birds to jelly fish to lemurs to lobsters. The wetlands section had all of the birds flying free instead of in cages, which I thought was rad even if we got splashed by a hooded merganser duck several times (like literally each time he swam by us) and almost got shat on by a roseate spoonbill bird. LOL Wes's favorite animal - the snowy egret bird - was in the wetlands, too.

A lot of the exhibits were interactive. I got to "pet" a jelly fish, star fish and a sea anemone. I would have also touched a stingray but he didn't swim close enough to me. An aquarium worker randomly brought out a penguin for us to see (but not touch). The aquarium has a few penguins but they aren't on display, yet. They live in the back for now. My favorite creature (and probably my new favorite animal, sorry okapi) was the leafy seadragon. This thing looks insane and astounding at the same time. It was a medium sized seahorse with branches growing out of it! Just look at it!! Extraordinary!

So that's a wrap for Tampa. If you go, try to go on the second Friday of the month so you can visit the night market. Plan to spend several hours at the aquarium (we probably spent 3-4 hours there). We went on a Monday so it wasn't crowded. You can probably skip the art museum. I didn't mention it but we also took a stroll along the Riverwalk. It was a nice two-mile walk. You start at the art museum and end up at Armatage Works. We spent a day in St. Petersburg as well, more on that next week!

Wes & Erica go to Tampa, FL, part 1

Yes, this blog post will be about food. LOL

For my birthday trip this year, I decided that Wes & I should go to Florida... for three reasons: The Dalí Museum, Cuban food and seafood. We ate plenty of Cuban food and had a fantastic time at the museum, but we didn't get any seafood. 😔 Well, two out of three ain't bad. I had actually picked out a highly rated seafood place (Shells Seafood Restaurant) but we never made it. I think we ate too much at one of our many other stops and couldn't stomach another restaurant. LOL Since food is my main reason for travelling, this blog post will be a rundown of all the places we ate at.

La Segunda Bakery-
This place was so good, we actually went there twice! The original bakery is in Ybor and it would have been neat to eat at that location, but we chose the Tampa location instead because it was within walking distance from the hotel. The first time, we went for breakfast. I got the avocado toast (with adorable itty bitty avocados🥑) with a shortbread cookie with guava filling center and Wes got a breakfast sandwich (with mild garlicy chorizo instead of the spicy kind) with a coconut cannoli. We both ordered cafe con leche. I asked for sugar in mine which turned out to be a sort-of-bad idea because it was too sweet. The coffee was really good though, darker than what cafes serve here in Oklahoma. The second time we went was for lunch. I got a Cubano (which was insanely meaty with "special sauce"- a creamy blend of mustard & mayonnaise that I liked better than regular mustard) with a guava turnover and Wes got oatmeal (I know, weirdo) with flan and cold brew. He said the cold brew was good because there wasn't very much milk or sugar in it, which means I probably wouldn't have enjoyed it. LOL I ordered a Jupiña soda. It was supposed to be pineapple flavored but I thought it tasted more like peach or guava. No complaints though. I loved my dessert but Wes wasn't a fan of his flan. He said the texture was off due to the settled "crust" part on the bottom.

Armature Works-
Armature Works is a HUGE food court with local culinary pop-ups, shops and bars. There was a wide variety of food, from tacos to ice cream to burgers. I wish we could have spent an entire day here to eat but unfortunately, we weren't even hungry when we came here. We were walking along the Riverwalk in Tampa after breakfast and came upon it. It was really nice weather that day, sunny with a slight breeze. The place had a large outdoor area, with a patio and lawn games, and we witnessed an engagement (she said yes). We stopped in for coffee at Union. Wes got the nitro cold brew and I got the matcha latte, which wasn't sweetened but I surprisingly still liked it.

Matoi Korean & Sushi-
We had my birthday dinner here. It wasn't on the itinerary (yes, I research and scout out several restaurants before we travel because food is the most important part) but I'm glad we found it. It was within walking distance from the hotel and we saw it the previous morning when we were walking to La Segunda. We ordered the soft shelled crab for starters and then I got sushi for dinner and Wes got kimchi chigae (spicy soup with pork, tofu and kimchi). The sushi was super fresh. 🍣🦀😋I didn't finish it all so we took the remainder to the hotel. I ate it a day later for a snack and it was still good! In my experience, leftover sushi has never been a good idea. The soft shell crab was also delicious. We ate at 4pm because we skipped lunch that day. We were one of the only customers there so the service was amazing. I'm sure that the service is top notch even when its busy, too.

La Teresita-
This was our last meal on our trip. La Teresita is a local staple in Tampa and literally everyone recommends it. Our Uber driver told us he'd give us a five-star rating because we chose a good restaurant for dinner. Hahaha! The portions are very generous and the prices are cheap. We were welcomed with Cuban bread; for dinner I had rice with squid & garbanzo soup (both of which I thoroughly enjoyed, minus the onions though... there were way too many onions!) and Wes had pork chunks with rice and fries. The pork was marinated in lime & spices and was very tender. This might have been my favorite meal. But the sushi was also really really good. And the guava turnover was amazing. Okay, I guess I liked it all! LOL

All this food is making me hungry, and rightly so. Its dinner time! I have to stop to cook dinner but next week, I'll post about all of the touristy stuff we did in Tampa. Until then...

Wes & Erica see Iron Maiden in concert

Iron Maiden - Legacy of the Beast tour - Saturday September 21, 2019

I officially have my second metal concert in the books! Wes & I drove to Dallas over this past weekend to see Iron Maiden on their Legacy of the Beast tour. I know nothing about Iron Maiden so during the drive, Wes curated a selection of their greatest hits for me to familiarize myself with. I can't really say with certainty that I like their music. But, Wes is a fan and he said that their concert was top notch (actually, he said it was "really good" because he would never say "top notch" LOL). He also said his three favorite songs from the concert were Fear of the Dark, Trooper (one of my favorite performances of the night as well because that was when Eddie, the mascot, came out and had a choreographed sword fight with Bruce, the lead singer), and Number of the Beast (even though it annoyed him that everyone was singing along and drowning out the band).

 The opening band was The Raven Age. They are a metal band from somewhere in England (aka not famous here). Wes said their ability to play music was good but their song writing was crap. I thought they were pretty terrible over all. They really wanted to involve the crowd and promote their new album, Conspiracy, but I don't think very many people knew of the single they just released so their attempts at getting everyone to clap to the beat and sing along didn't work out very well. But they said the word "conspiracy" so many times that I actually remembered that was the name of their new album. Good advertising technique, guys!

All metal bands practically sound the same to me (clearly, this is not the type of music that I listen to regularly) so all I have to go on is the look and feel of the concert. And the concert felt really good. It was outdoors in awful heat and humidity but everyone was friendly, excited, and in a genuinely happy mood. The crowd was pretty diverse but all of the random concert goers were chatting with each other without judgement. Wes got several compliments on the band t-shirt he was wearing. I sat next to a young man (who asked my permission to vape but still was polite enough to step away to do it even after I assured him it was okay) and his father. They both were very eager to tell Wes and me about Iron Maiden, their song catalog and this concert's set list. At one point during the show, Bruce came on stage with a sword. I turned to Wes and screamed, "OMG he has a sword!!" The father heard me and tapped me on the shoulder, gave me the rock & roll sign of the horns and a face that read "of course he has a sword now head bang with us!" and I couldn't stop myself from screaming as loud as I could and bobbing along with the rest of the crowd. Why can't strangers be this nice all of the time?

The set design was really cool. We weren't very close to the stage so I couldn't get good pictures but they had large screens hung up all over so we still got a decent view of the show. The stage was multi-storied so the lead singer could run around and climb up onto the various tiers. Bruce has a lot of energy!! You would never believe the band was in their sixties from the way they played and interacted with us. The show started with Winston Churchill's "We shall fight on the beaches" speech and a life sized replica of a Spitfire plane flew onto the stage. I knew at that point that my like or dislike of their music didn't matter; this was going to be an entertaining concert. There were lots of lasers and pyrotechnics (including a HUGE Icarus model that burned down at the end of Flight of Icarus), a costumed Eddie in stilts, and a new backdrop was revealed at the beginning each song (the best one being an incredibly detailed inflatable demon's head). Bruce did a handful of costume changes, coming out in various hats, masks, a cape and props. Costume changes are the best! Anyway, it was a fun experience and I am really glad we got to go because Iron Maiden was on Wes's bucket list of bands to see live. 

Erica & Wes go to the Dior fashion exhibit

Earlier this year during one of my sewing group's "Sew n' Share" sessions, Claire told us that the Dallas Museum of Art will be hosting a Dior fashion exhibit in the summer. And that this exhibit was a pretty big deal. She told us that it's only touring two museums in North America and it will be in Dallas for a limited time. I immediately went to the art museum's website (https://dma.org/dior) and started planning a trip for me & Wes. We went over this past weekend and it was pretty great. I took a TON of pictures (all posted at the end of this blog and on Instagram @ragsreborngifts).

Before we get into the museum, you know I have to write a bit about where we ate. 😋 I don't think I planned it to be this way, but each one of our meals was Korean. For breakfast, we stopped in 9 Rabbits Bakery. We got there a little after it opened but for some reason, my pastry already tasted stale. I got a chocolate chocolate chip cake and Wes got a chocolate cream filled French horn. I also ordered a Korean iced coffee, which tasted like a Vietnamese coffee but with a lot more sugar and condensed milk.  

We went to BBBop for dinner. They served modern Korean fusion rice bowls. Wes ordered one of the featured rice bowls off the menu and I got a "build-your-own" bowl and some samosa eggrolls to share. I liked them because they only had a light curry taste and weren't spicy. It was a quick and casual dinner spot with friendly staff. We both really enjoyed the food (much more than what we had for breakfast). The restaurant has a couple of unique sauces. My favorite was the cucumber tomatillo sauce. There was a community bulletin board, so I had to leave a RagsReborn business card. LOL

BBBOp was in a strip mall that also had (supposedly) a boba tea cafe. We walked toward the sign for Panda Tea to find that it was closed for renovations. Luckily, boba tea cafes were in abundance according to Google Maps so we just drove a few blocks down to Craft Boba... which was permanently closed. 😑 Our third attempt was to Royal I.T Cafe. It was open for business! Yay! We almost wished we ate dinner there (even though BBBop was delicious) because they poké bowls (which I really like) and Thai food (which is Wes's favorite). We ordered our drinks and made a mental note to come back soon for lunch. I got a rose mike tea with boba and it was really refreshing. Did I mention it was over 100° Fahrenheit the entire time we were driving & walking around?

Alright, now to what we've all been waiting for... Dior: From Paris to the World!!

A few things you should know about the exhibit before you make the drive to Dallas:

     * tickets must be purchased in advance and the tickets are only valid for a certain time. Our tickets were for 3:15pm. We didn't arrive until closer to 3:30pm 😓 but by the grace of God, the ticket taker had mercy on us and let us in. I must have had a very distressed and ashamed look on my face as I handed her our late tickets. 

     * traffic and parking in downtown Dallas is horrendous... or at least it was the weekend that we went. There were a lot of activities going on downtown including some sort of food truck festival, a costume convention (where I saw an Elvis impersonator and Wes saw some anime cos players strutting around the streets) and the opera. Wes navigated us to Hall Arts Center parking garage that just so happened to be free when we left. I think paid parking ended at 5pm and we left a little after that. Yay!

     * viewers are only allowed in the exhibit for a certain amount of time (we were there from about 3:30 - 4:45pm and I think the longest you're allowed to be in there is an hour) and if you dally, a museum worker will gently, but unapologetically, prod you along--which happened to me.  #embarrassing Wes likened it to herding cattle. LOL The narrow layout of the exhibit forced viewers to walk in a straight line in one direction only and we were all scrunched very close together. 

     * the Dior exhibit is open in the evenings, but the art museum itself closes at 5pm on the dot. No joke. There was a Mary Magdalene/religious oil paintings by Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio gallery that I really wanted to see but couldn't make in time. I had a very stern security guard inform me of museum hours and shoo me away (it was only about 5:10pm). 😒

So... the experience at the Dior exhibit wasn't that great. Let's just say that the viewing is heavily regulated by museum staff. So even if you aren't deterred by the crowds and want to linger and really appreciate a dress or a section of the exhibit, it was extremely hard to do so. I found that to be very stressful, which made it hard to really feel and fully take in what I was looking at, but the dresses were absolutely AMAZING. I mean, just look at the beading and detail in the dress pictured above! All of them were exquisitely made and so beautiful. 

Per the museum guide, "His [Christian Dior] unique style, inspired by art and culture, celebrated the triumphant return of femininity. His vision of clothing based on strong, architectural lines resonated in a world rebuilding itself from the ground up after the devastation of World War II." There have been six creative directors in the Dior fashion house after Christian's death. The first three designed more classically (Gianfranco Ferré being my favorite) and the most recent three represented couture in a more avant-garde way. 

John Galliano's work was the first we encountered when we walked into the modern designers' section. I saw his dresses and audibly gasped and said, "Oh my gawd!" (I realize I'm probably a pretty annoying museum mate... just a warning if you ever want to go gallery viewing with me.) Per the museum guide, "before each collection, John Galliano visited other countries and filled scrapbooks with objects, photos and collages from his travels. Ideas emerged from a mix of inspirations across time and space."

The main attraction was a long hall filled with dresses From Paris to the World. It showcased several of Dior's collections that "were created for different markets in Europe, the United States, North Africa and Asia." There was a small section of dresses (pictured in the bottom left corner below) designed for and worn by celebrities.

The last, and probably my favorite, part of the exhibit was Splendors of the 18th Century and Field of Flowers. They were two separate collections but the dresses had the same theme, in my opinion. They were romantically feminine but still creative. Per the museum guide, Christian Dior said, "After woman, flowers are the most divine creatures." The beautiful pastel dresses were embellished with floral motifs, which was fitting since he was an avid gardener. I liked the juxtaposition of coming toward these classical dresses after viewing the loud haute couture designs in the From Paris to the World dresses. I found it be a nice note to end the visit on.

Both Wes & I were captivated by the unique creativity and workmanship of the garments. I am really glad we went despite the stressful parts of our visit. My favorite collections were The Office of Dreams (picture on my Instagram... beautiful white shirts, jackets and dresses all hanging on the wall), Fields of Flowers/Splendors of the 18th Century and Gianfranco Ferré: The Postmodern Couturier (pictures also on Instagram...amazing black & white striped ballgown with a ruffly train). Wes's favorite part was the From Paris to the World collections, except for, he wanted me to add, having to crane your neck to see some of the dresses on the top tiers. 😆

One last thing-- on our way out, we stopped by SCRAP Denton. It is a little warehouse, actually a non-profit retail space--filled with second-hand craft supplies sold at a discount. I wish we had something like that in Oklahoma City because I exclusively shop there for all of my sewing and crafting needs. There was an entire wall of shelves that had nothing but fabric scraps. I was in heaven!! They also had thread, buttons, bobbins and other sewing notions. The supplies are donated by the public and sold cheaply to encourage environmentally sustainable behavior by reusing "trash". I probably could have bought more but I tired to only stick to items I needed-- which was fabric for stuffed dinosaurs (colors and patterns on bottom right corner of photo above). Speaking of that, fall craft shows are quickly approaching! I will have my schedule posted very soon. Time to get to sewing!