sfmoma

A few scenes from a company field trip to SFMOMA last month. Jessi with the "where the heck are we?" signs and everyone squished into the elevator are my favorites.

I love people-watching at museums.

the academy at night

After our delicious Indian feast of huge naan and biryani, my residence went to NightLife at the California Academy of Science. I remember walking around the gigantic museum as a kid and just being amazed by everything. Even though we only saw two exhibits (the rainforest and the aquarium) on Thursday, I still felt the same childhood feelings.

And not to say that I don't love children, but it was really nice just walking around the museum without kids screaming and running around. I got to take my time with my photos (I'm so proud of that iguana!) and the evening went by so quickly. I never thought that the museum at night would be so much fun (cue bad Night at the Museum jokes).

the welsh museum of life

after tintern abbey, our group stopped at

the welsh museum of life

this museum isn't like any museum i've ever seen before

it's all outdoors and it's got antique welsh buildings brought in from

a ton of different places. there are buildings like bakeries,

shoemakers, etc, etc

i didn't see many of those, though...

hiyabel and i ended up spending most of our time

at the castle and gardens

could you blame us?

i love wales and that their national flower is the daffodil.

it was like daffodil heaven

our last day

vienna was our last stop before heading to berlin

to begin david's semester abroad in potsdam

we decided to go to the natural history museum

it's enormous- i'm pretty sure that we spent at least 4 hours there.

not really sure why darwin is riding the tortoise

dory and some axolotls

a lion is about to attack him and he doesn't even care

one of my favorites

photography by david

a little break after our many hours of wandering

mozart

stephansdom

the gasthaus that we ate at every night.

it's delicious- soup and schnitzel for 5.80 euro

and then we headed to the westbahnhof for our overnight train

5 museums in one day, oh my

david and i got a 2-day museum pass when we went to versailles

so we thought we'd make good use to it and go to

as many museums as we could during our last day there

we started with the louvre

view of the seine from inside

the nike!

literally the only thing i was dying to see

everyone else was excited to see the mona lisa

that little painting in the distance in this photo

before coming, everyone told me that it was a disappointment

and that it was tiny

so i expected to see some 8 x 11 and was

pleasantly surprised to see that it was much bigger (:

disappointment avoided...

david and augustus

(he was really excited about all of the roman statues)

the venus di milo

looks like she and i chose the same spot for our tats

i'm a tourist

jardin des tuileries

and then MUSEE L'ORANGERIE!!!

so so so so excited to see monet's water lilies in person

little did i know...

with the left side

the middle

and the end at the right

(they are wonderfully gigantic!)

with chaim soutine

after the louvre and l'orangerie,

we needed a lunch break so we had lunch

in a little patisserie (:

then we moved on to the hotel des invalides

paris's military museums of arms

and naturally, there was a group of 2nd graders there

learning about all of the weapons...

jousting armor

david with napoleon's tomb

"that's a very large tomb for a pretty small guy"

then we moved on to the rodin museum!

there are a few rodin sculptures in the main quad back at school

but it was cool seeing more in person

especially "the thinker"

he squints a lot

after this, we went to the musee d'orsay

but they were very strict on the "no photos"

and by then we were so exhausted we just wanted to get back and rest our feet

nonetheless it was nice finally seeing

all of the museums that are famous worldwide

(the l'orangerie was my favorite, btw)