We’re Back!

I took this picture of John with the Atlantic Ocean as a backdrop and sandwiched it with a photo of one of the many amazing buildings we saw in Boston. It’s hard to get back into the groove after having such a great time together.
On the way down we hit a snag at U.S. Customs. They took our passports and John had to be fingerprinted and photographed because he’s still a British citizen. He’s says this experience has given him the incentive to finally become a Canadian.
Fortunately the rest of the trip went smoothly. Visiting the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum was one of the high points. Built around a courtyard, the museum is crammed with tapestries, sculptures, paintings, old letters, books and furniture. There’s so much to discover. The jumble of styles and artifacts is eccentric and overwhelming, not like the galleries we’re both used to that’s for sure.
I loved the Renaissance paintings in particular…Boticelli, Titan and Raphael, as well as several artists from that time period I’d never heard of. There was a spectacular Rembrandt self-portrait there too. I’ve never been a big fan of his paintings, even though I’d read that he used multiple layers of glazes to get his skin tones just right. But then again, I’d never actually seen a Rembrandt in the flesh so to speak. It’s not easy to describe how powerful this painting really is. The best I can do is to say that it just shimmered.
While waiting for the “T’ a couple of days later, we had another cool experience. A guy – well, more like a dude really with all his belongings in a shopping cart – started singing that old Smokey Robinson song Ain’t Too Proud To Beg, and he was just fantastic…really belting it out with plenty of soul. Everyone was ignoring him, but they couldn’t help hearing him. I kept waiting for someone to make a move and give him some money, so finally I walked on over and gave him a dollar. Fortunately this started the ball rolling and I think he did pretty well. I keep thinking about him though. He obviously had talent, but why was he homeless? I guess he took a wrong turn somewhere, but then again so many of us do.