From Ancient Times to JFK...

Good Morning everyone! <3



Francesca here. I’ll back up to La Quinta and let you know a bit about my stay there post-Malibu. On the drive home to La Quinta we made two planned stops, first to pick up California Pizza Kitchen and my Dad’s girlfriend Melissa who was waiting for us, and secondly to pick up Melissa’s friend Cathy. The next afternoon, Melissa, Cathy, and I went out planning to go to a flea market, but ended up out for Mexican food. At lunch, I learned a more about Cathy—she was a bit infamous; Cathy St. George, the Playboy centerfold model. We shopped around a bit that day, and the next couple of days. Chilling out by the pool, getting some light exercise, watching Dancing With the Stars – the group just relaxed the next couple of days. We even had some time to dress up and take a few pictures! Before I left, Melissa made sure I got in a quick driving lesson, since I hadn’t been behind the wheel in more than 6 years! I left on a plane for Dallas the morning of the 18th of May.





















Once in Dallas, I was greeted by my brother in his Mini Cooper and we both worked to cram my 3 huge bags into the car. His girlfriend Ream hadn’t come with him since I let him know I had so many bags, but we met and picked her up after dropping my bags off and getting a good look their apartment. Our first destination was an amazingly delicious Chinese restaurant named Kirin Court where we feasted on pork buns and chicken feet. (They aren’t as bad as they sound!) I was reminded of all the great meals I had while in China on my trips. Since it had been a long day, we headed back home for some rest. The 19th we spent together working on Anthony’s resume, getting it into shape for his upcoming job hunt, followed by a noon meeting for myself – and lunch out – before a midnight McDonald’s run.









The next morning Ream and I decided to check out the Dallas Museum of Art. After buying our tickets we headed straight for the Thaw Collection of American Indian Art (after a quick stop in a Frank Lloyd Wright lithograph gallery) which was colorful and entertaining. There were plenty of colorful outfits with intricate beading and weapon holders. Some of the artifacts such as the sculptures and actual weapons were the most interesting… here are a few pictures from the website, as we weren’t allowed to take any ourselves.

The rest of the museum we were allowed to take our own photos, so we got busy exploring. After a quick bite of tea sandwiches downstairs, we headed up to the 3rd floor (if I remember correctly) to look at artwork from Japan. The coolest item in this section by far was a bronze and glass Meiji period statue of famous statesman Takenouchi no Sukune meeting the Dragon King of the Sea. Takenouchi is supposed to destroy a sea monster and in return the dragon king presents him with a jewel that grants him control over the seas. This statue is an image of their meeting. Coming up next in the Japanese art were a bunch of neat looking colorful vases… here are a couple examples.

But the main object of interest in this area was the items from The Wendy and Emery Reves Collection of 1,400 paintings, furniture pieces, and collectibles from mostly impressionist and post impressionist stages, some modern as well. Many of the pieces originally decorated the house of French fashion designer Coco Chanel. Ream and I walked through gallery after gallery of over-the-top rooms each with tons of different pieces inside. Rounding the corner out of these rooms we came across quite a few rooms in a row with art pieces from all over the world. We took our time going through section by section, delighted at the different and unique objects we found from various cultures around the world. It’ll get me way too pumped up on traveling again if I describe everything to you all here, so I’ll just post a few pictures of the coolest things we saw in the galleries.

Japanese:









The Reves Collection:











Polynesian Art:

Male ancestral architecture figure:



Image of a shaman slain during a headhunt:



Part of a male secret society initiation (carving the below figure):



Sword in sheath with ivory tusks:





Indian Art:



South American/Central American Art:

Mask with Sea Otter Spirit:



Head of the rain God Tlaloc with two frogs:



Greek:



Heading Towards Modern Art:

Picasso:



Frederic's image of nature/abundance:



Mondrian:



Magritte:



Gerald Murphy's clock picture:



Magritte: Pants on a table aka Persian Letters! An ordinary object under an unusual circumstance which is supposed to question our perception of reality, according to the label on the painting. His titles are also strange...




Two Paintings By Sir Winston Churchill:





PANDA CHAIR:



Anthony picked up Ream and I (after returning from Fort Worth on an apartment run) and we all grabbed a bite to eat at Coal Vines. Calamari, and a delicious half white-cheese/half bolognaise pizza filled us up quickly, and we ended up bringing home the rest.





The highlight of our weekend was the Renaissance fair in Scarborough. (http://www.srfestival.com/) We didn’t get started until after noon because we needed to get all dressed up for the occasion! Ream and I put on our outfits: Ream wore a pirate frilly shirt and boots and I wore a pink corset with ribbons running down the back of it. (Sad I didn’t have my Renaissance dress with me! I’ll post it here so you have the idea of what I would have worn.) We grabbed Anthony and headed out. Of course Anthony refused to dress up! We did try to rent him an outfit right when we walked into the fair, but it was WAY too expensive to even consider it.









The fair was incredible! As we walked in we bought a map that showed us everything we could possibly see, including show times. There were tons of shops everywhere you looked, most selling different outfits (pirate stuff, shoes and boots, jewelry, etc.) or weapons. We passed the foundery, where they made various old-school weapons people could purchase for a high price. We passed flasks and glassblowers, and carnival-like rides. One involved a giant beer keg swinging back and forth! The main order of business at the fair was of course, food. After walking around and looking at some shops, (and sweating our asses off! It was so humid) we bought some mead (honey wine) and started scoping out the area for food. We did run into an awesome string of people, basically a Renaissance parade, coming down the way towards us. After watching the parade, we walked around further, passing a May Pole and noting the dance there I wanted to visit later.













I found a place for us to sit down (which also happened to be a show called Iris & Rose) and eat. Anthony and Ream ran to go collect the food while I saved the spots. They came back with a small feast: a big turkey leg, two large beef ribs, some fried ice-cream, a spinach puff, and a cheese hot-dog in a bread-like wrap. My favorites were hands-down the beef ribs and spinach puff! After eating, we stopped to watch some jousting (which wasn’t too entertaining, plus it smelled heavily of horse dung and was blazing humid by this point!) and then walked back towards the May Pole. We stopped to grab yet another spinach pie (these things are amazing!) before watching a bit of the May Pole dance. Since the theme of the weekend was PIRATES, there were plenty of them around the May Pole as well!












The Show We Saw:



The People We Spoke To:



THE MAY POLE! Here is a little interesting background by Wikipedia: “One theory holds that they were a remnant of the Germanic reverence for sacred trees, as there is evidence for various sacred trees and wooden pillars that were venerated by the pagans across much of Germanic Europe, including Thor's Oak and the Irminsul. It is also known that, in Norse paganism, which is the best attested form of Germanic paganism, cosmological views held that the universe was a world tree, known as Yggdrasil. There is therefore speculation that the maypole was in some way a continuance of this tradition.”

I absolutely had to try the fried macaroni and cheese (with marinara dipping sauce) which Anthony brought back to Ream and I (along with some more mead for himself and another spinach pie for Ream) and it was about now that the heat was really getting to all of us, to the point where we started to take apart our outfits in order to save our sanity! The last place we decided to see was the ‘Tower of Yorkshire’ freaky dungeon. It was a little extra money, and not really worth it. So take that tip if you go! Once we got back to the house we started watching a bunch of episodes of Daria (I had, by now, the entire collection and was eager to watch it all!) and began wishing we had brought back a couple of spinach pies! Since the fair had us exhausted, we slept through until the afternoon the next day. The weather wasn’t the best so we watched Daria, did some painting, and just chilled out.

















The day before I was set to leave we did manage to get out of the house again both for a visit to the 6th Floor Museum and another meeting that evening for myself. The 6th Floor Museum refers to the 6th floor of the former Texas School Book Depository, where the shot was fired by Lee Harvey Oswald (or so we assume) which killed JFK. We received an audio guide after buying our tickets and entered the elevator. The exhibit led us around the warehouse, pointing out to us various areas where JFK had been outside the building while in Dallas. It recalled the events leading up to JFK’s assassination, starting with his political stances, a little history on the current events at the time, and about JFK’s family life in general. We saw the books that Oswald hid behind when he shot the President, the grassy knoll, the winding road the President’s limo had been driving down… and watched multiple videos about the event. Towards the end of the exhibit we learned about the debate over conspiracy, the death of Oswald (by Jack Ruby’s hand) and the conspiracy behind that, and we saw the hat that Jack Ruby wore (which he was commonly identified by) when he shot Oswald.



After the museum visit, Anthony picked up Ream and I from the museum and (after dropping me off for my meeting, and picking me up an hour later) we went to eat at PF Chang’s. Such an AMAZING meal of two appetizers, three entrees, and two desserts! (Amazingly huge piece of chocolate cake!!) We took our filled stomachs home and I made sure I was packed up for the next morning: flight out to Orlando!







Thank you everyone, and I’ll keep you all updated!

Francesca DelGuidice