Month: May 2015

Is this terrible? My kids don’t have the faintest idea who Jimmy Buffett really is.

When my kids think ‘Margaritaville’ they think hotel. And that makes Jimmy Buffett not some fun-loving guy who loves islands, mixed drinks, and happens to be the son of a son of a sailor, but rather a hotelier with their favorite place to stay in Pensacola.

So this is the Margaritaville Hotel. And is is pretty fun.

The wonderfulness that is the New Orleans Botanical Garden at City Park:

Hydrangea:

I think these are Gingerlily:

Definitely want to plant these — they have…it’s almost like a flower in a flower:

Thai Ginger:

American Ginger (about to laugh about something!):

Water lily:

It is perfection.

Gorgeous, gorgeous public garden design from the WPA and Art Deco period…and then you just walk right across the street to the Besthoff Sculpture Garden, and into the Museum of Art, and maybe make a break somewhere for Morning Call…  It is just one of the most wonderful places to be.

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Not botanical gardens, but the government has made available to all 4th graders membership in ‘Every Kid in a Park‘ which will gain them and their families free entrance into national parks!

Ready to share this with the world. A gift. The knowledge that Poupart’s Bakery in Lafayette is officially the best bakery in the universe.  All-around, that is.

There are some places that get first place in other areas.

Duchess Bakery in Cullman has the best hot doughnuts. When they’re room temperature, eh, they’re a great doughnut. But when you get there in the morning and get a bag of hot ones, they just *melt*. They melt! That’s just what they do.

Cutest kid in a doughnut — Shug as a Krispy Kreme with sprinkles:

Tied for best apple fritter: Gibsons Doughnuts in Memphis

and The Donut Shop in Natchez:

Gambino’s in Metairie makes the best doberge.  In our family, birthday cake = doberge.

Unless you’re turning one, in which case we got Shug a private room at Antoine’s where his birthday cake was also the best baked Alaska on earth:

Best bagels in the universe are at St. Viateur in Montreal:

Paul’s Pastry in Picayune makes the best king cake (I know it’s wrong that they’re not in LA but still.)

Although best little baby king cake pastries goes to Sucre on Magazine:

Macaroon Boutique in Charleston makes the best macarons.

Ah, I could keep this going forever.  But best all-around? Best everything you get there is amazing? It’s Poupart’s.

Yes. Yes. Yes.

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One of my highest-viewed pics on Flickr — this wedding cake (the bakery is no longer in business):

Finishing up the visit to the Hunter Museum of American Art in Chattanooga — this is the more contemporary collection:

Doris Leeper, Modular Wall Relief in Eight Colors, 1972-74

Hung Liu, Pullman. 2004.

Karen LaMonte, Reclining Dress Impression with Drapery, Glass Casting. 2006.

Lalla Essaydi, Les Femmes Du Maroc, La Grande Odalisque. 2008.

Bo Bartlett, The Babysitter. 1999.

Next to the Bo Bartlett painting, there was a notebook for guests to write their thoughts. So they did.

Robert Stackhouse, Listings and Sailings. 1982.

Radcliffe Bailey, In The Returnal. 2007.

Chattanooga has done well. The Hunter Museum of American Art there is pretty wonderful. They’ve got an exhibit of Eudora Welty’s photographs on exhibit and another TVA photography exhibit doing on, and has a nice permanent collection between very, very different buildings. I was really looking for them to include Southern visionary art of which I don’t remember a single piece — even the Tennessee Aquarium a short walk away has a display — but even with that, it was great.

Here’s part one of two — in this one, the buildings and some of the older pieces (more modern next time):

The museum is on this bluff overlooking the Tennessee River:

This walkway took me directly to Av and the boys who were playing at the Aquarium.

“Free Money” by Tom Otterness, which is to depict everyday working people dancing atop a sackful of money:

This is Deborah Butterfield’s ‘Boreal’ (2001) which appears as driftwood but is actually cast bronze with a patina.

Walking up to it, I really thought it was one of Heather Jansch‘s driftwood horses, like these we found at Alys Beach:

Main entrance

Here, connected, is the Faxon-Hunter mansion, which was once home to the owner of the world’s first Coca-Cola bottling company.

The main, modern entrance includes the exhibit on view now through July 12, 2015 — Eudora Welty and the Segregated South.  Next, one walks into the Faxon-Hunter Mansion for the early part of the collection.

Drink in the moulding.

‘Ruth Gleaning’ by Randolph Rogers

‘The Huntsman’s Door’ circa 1890 by Richard LaBarre Goodwin. It was the first art purchased by the museum.

Mary Cassatt’s circa 1890 ‘Baby Bill in His Cap and Shift, Held by His Nurse’:

Grandma Moses’ 1947 ‘Over the River to Grandma’s House on Thanksgiving’:

Thomas Hart Benton’s 1943 ‘The Wreck of the Ole ’97’.  Benton collected folk music and based this painting on the song inspired by this actual train incident.

Marsden Hartley’s 1938-39 ‘Chanties to the North’:

and to set us up for part two, Charles Joseph Biederman’s 1977-78 #17, as viewed from an angle:

Every time I visit The Cabildo, I see someone taking a picture of this sign.  Me too.