NEW YORK CITY: THE WHITNEY MUSEUM AND LITTLE ISLAND

May 2023

New York City is possibly one of the best places in the United States if you are an art lover. There are at least 36 art museums in the city (see this list) and a bazillion galleries. On this trip we spent a bit of time in the Whitney Museum of American Art, which contains more than 23,000 works of art by more than 3,400 artists. 

We began with the retrospective for American artist our son is the studio manager for. 

It was especially fun to see this show, which took up two floors of the Whitney, because of our son's connection to it. Here are a few representative pieces:

Make-Believe

Contagious Unemployment 
(and the two below)

Wrapping Things Up

Creative Hands

PORTUGAL: CABO DA ROCA, CASCAIS, AND A LISBON PARK FESTIVAL

 June 23, 2022

Before returning to Lisbon, our guide took us to what she called "the end of the world" (known more officially as Cabo da Roca), the westernmost point of Portugal and, in fact, of continental Europe. A lighthouse began operating at this point in 1772.

ECUADOR, CUENCA: OLD TOWN

 March 27, 2022

The historical center of the city of Cuenca has been listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. 

The official name of the city is Santa Ana de los Ríos de Cuenca. The name Cuenca, which means "basin" in Spanish, refers to its position in a broad valley in the Andes. Cuenca was built by the Spaniards atop the ruins of Tumebamba, an Incan city destroyed in a civil war just before the arrival of the Spanish conquistadors.

The city's coat of arms includes the words Primero Dios y Despues Vos, which translates as "First God and then you." 

There are many beautiful buildings in the older part of town, and some date to the colonial era. Others are more recent. Our first stop was the San Francisco Church, largely constructed in the 19th century. The clock tower was added in 1930 and includes the Latin phrase Ora Pro Nobis ("Pray for us") just above the clock.

 

NEW YORK CITY: SEWARD PARK, THE EAST RIVER, AND MOMA PS 1

 July 22, 2021

We started our second day in NYC by picking up soft egg and avocado sandwiches for breakfast at Factory Tamal and taking them to nearby Seward Park, where we sat on a bench and watched the antics of energetic children, noted the numbers of what appeared to be families enjoying the park (or nannies with children?), and wolfed down the sandwiches.

One of the things NYC does exceptionally well is provide open space that can be enjoyed by all. Over 30,000 acres of land, an impressive 4% of the city, are dedicated parks. According to www.nycgovparks.org, there are more than 5,000 individual properties in the park system, which include about 1,000 playgrounds, 1,800 basketball courts, 550 tennis courts, 65 public pools, 51 recreational facilities, 15 nature centers, 14 golf courses, and 14 miles of beaches. When my acquaintances tell me they could never live in NYC because they would miss nature, I know they haven't experienced the neighborhood parks.

This is NYC.

Of course, NYC also has its problems, but they seem to address them in their own unique way.