Missouri Getaway - Day One

 This past week, we traveled to a couple of destinations in Missouri for a quick get away.  I had discovered some things that I wanted to see and they all happened to be not too far from each other.  We reserved a VRBO in Hermann, Missouri as our resting spot.  

 First of all, we drove to Fulton, Missouri on the way to Hermann.  In Fulton, is Westminster College.  Westminster is a beautiful little campus in the small town of Fulton that has beautiful architecture and some interesting history.  I specifically wanted to see America's National Churchill Museum that is on campus.  It is set in a chapel building that was moved from London and rebuilt onto the college campus.  The chapel is the Church of St. Mary the Virgin, Aldermanbury. Originally from the 1600's, it was bombed by Hitler during the blitz of World War II. The story of how it came to rest in Fulton, is worth the visit. The museum commemorates the life of Winston Churchill and they also have a small exhibit of his paintings.  Did you know that WC was an oil painter? He was invited to speak in the chapel and his "Iron Curtain" speech, "Sinews of Peace" was given there.  

Lake Scene at Norfolk

oil on canvas

1930

A big piece of the Berlin Wall is also on display next to the Chapel.

Check out more about this museum at https://www.nationalchurchillmuseum.org

Visit to the DMA

The Dallas Museum of Art that is.  A Dallasite (made that up) friend that had NEVER gone to the Dallas Museum of Art suggested we go for a visit this week.  Today was the day.  It's a good time of the year to do inside activities in Texas.  My car said the temperature was 108 degrees this afternoon.  Good grief that's ridiculous.  I took a few pictures, of course, some were just okay and I didn't get information on everything.  The museum is great and definitely a must see.  

We began our day at the Nasher Sculpture Center.

This piece depicts Jews as they were being shipped by train to concentration camps. 

Very sobering sculpture.  

We went into the DMA cafe for lunch.  There is a beautiful Dale Chihuly display in the café.  

There is a large display called the Wendy and Emery Reves Collection.  The Reves donated many pieces of their collection which had also been the collection of Coco Chanel.  They had purchased the home, La Pausa, including the furniture and art from Coco.  Emery collected art and had several collections confiscated by the Nazi's during WWII.  This collection had so many originals from famous artists that it was unbelievable.  The display is constructed much like the French house.  The furniture was beautiful.  

This is Bougival by de Vlaminck

It is in the Fauvism style.  Here's a little more information about this piece.

A section of the above painting.

 These are the paints of Winston Churchill and below is one of five paintings that he gave the Reves.  

 Vase of Red Tulips

Winston Churchill

Incredible carving on a gilt frame. 

 a portion of 

River Bank in Springtime by Vincent van Gogh 

This one really reminded me of Sakura season in Japan.

 A small portion of Apple Harvest by Camille Pissarro

These two above are just portions of paintings using Pointillism.  

 Fishing Boats at L'Estaque by André Derain

If you are ever visiting, take the time to see the Dallas Museum of Art. It is located in the Dallas Arts District which also holds the Symphony Center, Opera House, and theaters.  When is the last time you went to an art museum?

Hello Again.

It's been awhile. The last time I wrote a blog post we had just returned to Japan from our Christmas trip to Kansas City. We were home one week and my husband had an arduous business trip to South Africa. Once he got there it was pretty cool.  One night he stayed in a preserve and saw a lot of animals. The trip there is a LONG one. While he was gone his father took a turn for the worse. Upon his arrival home one week later I had to break the news that his dad was gone. This was very sad news, but we were so thankful that we had just seen him. The next few days we planned a return trip for the funeral. 

This is the presentation of the flag to my husband after the service. Those military funerals are pretty emotional I can tell you that. We spent a few more days taking care of some business and getting a monument ordered. It was an emotional week and we really struggled with jet lag, yet again.  

Now we've been back a couple of weeks and my husband is off again to Mexico and Puerto Rico this week. We've done a couple of fun things in the past two weeks before he left.

Last weekend we visited the Toyota Commemorative Museum. My husband works for Toyota for those of you that haven't been around long. He's seen the museum but I had not. You might be interested to know that Toyota began as Toyoda Spinning and Weaving Company. Half of the museum is about the looms and spinning machines and the other half is about how the automobile business began. It was very interesting. 

Antique Japanese fabrics are beautiful.  

This is a replica of the first Toyota ever built. It was built based on a Chrysler that they took apart and studied. I hope you can see this sketch below.  It is only a portion and was blown up to a huge wall size. 

This is a replica of the first truck. It had only 65 HP. My husband's motorcycle has more power. 

The first car built for America. It had no power and evidently did not sell well. World War II came and the Japanese government wanted them to make only trucks. 

Eventually they were back at car production and the Corona was very popular in America.  This is the Corolla which is still in production.  Toyota has been on a roll since that time. 

About 20 years ago they brought in this steam engine as another example of the era of industrialization. It was a very interesting morning. I wish I could show you the kind of looms that they make today. Crazy fast and advanced technologies. I've made a little video of our visit.  Some of the photos are repeated, but you can also see the current looms.  Enjoy.


Well, thanks for hanging around through the silence and museum posts. Talk to you soon.