Boston Night Market & Happy Place Boston

I wasn't sure if I was going to make this into a post or not but I decided that I might as well! Last month I attended these 2 events so read on for a Boston Night Market review, a Happy Place Boston review, plenty of pictures, and I included a weekend in my life vlog because these events happened within the span of 2 days and I wanted to document the memories!

A Visit to the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum

Hi everyone,       
      Hope you've been doing well! I am currently on "spring break" although it feels more like winter still here in Massachusetts! This past Monday a couple of my friends and I visited the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum. I had never been and one of my friends said she enjoyed it when she visited before so we decided to check it out! It is actually very close to The Museum of Fine Arts which I found surprising and so it was very easy to get to especially with the T!

      The price of admission is also very reasonable, the regular adult price is $15, there is a senior discount, and people under the age of 18 get in free. For college students it is $5 with a valid school i.d. However, I embarrassingly somehow forgot to bring my school i.d. with me even though I knew I needed it! I guess I thought it was in my wallet but it turns out it was not. I was annoyed with myself about that but there wasn't anything I could do. When my friends and I went to the counter to buy our tickets before heading in the museum I decided to explain that I forgot my i.d. and the museum worker was very nice and let me pay the student price because my friends could vouch for me!

This is a painting of Isabella Stewart Gardner herself, there are a couple throughout the museum!

      Once we dropped our coats at the coat check (which is complementary) we headed into the new wing of the museum first. It is a fairly recent addition and has more contemporary art and pieces in it. The current exhibit was one on sound. There was one wall with some photographs of cats and then a recording of each one's purr. Cats are one of my friend's favorite animals and she definitely enjoyed that piece. There was also a large room that had a lot of windows and natural light and there were 50 small speakers covering the walls, each playing one note from a classical  piano song but simultaneously. So instead of hearing the melody and recognizing it we could only hear all the notes at one time. It was very interesting. They also had different sounds playing in the other part of the museum as part of the exhibit, although the noises being played did not really go with the rooms which I felt was a bit distracting.

A section of one of the rooms in the old wing

     Now on to the main part of the museum, the "old wing" or original section of the museum. This part houses the pieces that Isabella Stewart Gardner collected throughout her life and travels. There is art from all over the world and from all different eras as well. There were many painting and other artifacts, especially from Europe. This wing is also known as the Palace, and for good reason too. It is very ornate and beautiful. Many of the rooms are very large and have tiled floors and fire places. It is not set up like a regular museum. There are no labels next to the pieces and the rooms are set up to look like regular rooms that would be in, for lack of a better term, a Palace.  The rooms do have information cards in a holder and these are very helpful for explaining who painted or made each piece, when and where.

There are also many beautiful stained glass windows

Here is an example of one of the numerous fireplaces.

 You can see how regal the rooms look and how the chairs and other objects are reminiscent of a medieval castle.

    One of my favorite parts of the whole museum and what makes it really unique is the courtyard.  It is a beautiful area in the middle of the building. Filled with luscious green plants and flowers. There are fountains, statues, and benches surrounding it as well. It is so gorgeous and peaceful! There is a glass roof enclosing it but it is extremely high up and it is not very noticeable. You feel as though you are outside in an amazing courtyard in Italy!

     I believe that most of "the Palace" was actually transported from Italy, reconstructed, and turned into the museum. However I am not 100% sure so don't quote me on that!
      When looking at some of the paintings I noticed something that looked familiar.  I picked up one of the information cards to check out one of the paintings. I had thought I recognized a building from Venice and it turns out I had! I then went through the camera roll on my phone and found a picture I had taken in October while on my trip to Italy and it matched the painting I was looking at! That was a very surreal and I'll admit, pretty cool moment!

The painting on the top is the one I am referring to.

      It's crazy that the same buildings are still there and in remarkably good shape! I also find it pretty cool when my friends and I notice paintings or items similar to things we've seen in textbooks or when we are able to pull on knowledge from different courses such as Art or Fashion History and point things out in artwork!

     I definitely recommend checking out this museum if you have the chance! It is not very large and so it should not take too long to get through, one afternoon should be sufficient. My friend who had visited it before did point out though that it is a place that one would definitely notice new things in each time they visit! My mom had not been too thrilled at first when I mentioned that I was visiting the Gardner Museum because surprisingly she had not enjoyed her time there. She felt as though it was too dark inside and she could not see the paintings and other items well. I agree that it is pretty dim especially compared to other museum but they keep the lights low to preserve the pieces. Daylight coming in through the windows made it very easy for me to see everything but my mom had gone on a cloudy day. So "pro tip", visit when there is a good amount of daylight! It would not be fun to visit and not be able to get the full experience due to not being able to see!
     Here is the museum's website if you are interested in more information: http://www.gardnermuseum.org/home/

Do you have a favorite museum?

Thanks for reading!
Emily

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Castle Island Adventure

Hi guys, I hope you are having a great summer!

      I finally made it to the beach! My mom recently mentioned that she had wanted to visit Castle Island which is located in South Boston. None of us had ever been there before so we were excited to go. There is a fort, Fort Independence, a restaurant known for its sea food of course, a couple beaches, a playground and walking trails. 
     We took the T and a bus and arrived at one of the beaches. My mom and I went in the water a little as we walked along from one end of the island to get to the restaurant located on the other end. As we were walking we saw some shells, sea glass, and horse shoe prints. The latter was definitely a surprise. I guess that the rangers patrol on horses, a not so nice surprise was that we passed some other evidence left by the horses which we made sure to avoid getting too close to.  

Pic of my mom and sister featuring a plane

       On the walk over to the restaurant we saw a lot of low flying planes and assumed we were close to the airport. We also saw some large machines that my sister was very intrigued by and wanted to know what they were. As we got closer and closer to the restaurant we also got closer and closer to the machines and were able to determine that they were for taking large cargo containers off of ships and putting them on the land. We finally made it to Sullivan's to have lunch. It is similar to Kelly's if you are familiar with the MA area. We got fish and chips and it was really good. My mom, sister, and I split two meals between the three of us, it was very filling.       

The little building in the back there is Sullivan's

     Since we were so full and wanted to walk it off we made our way past another beach, the playground, saw some statues and made it to the fort. Only to the find out that visitors can only enter on Saturdays and Sundays and it was a Friday (probably one of the only times I will be annoyed that it was a Friday lol). We couldn't complain too much though because we still had a beautiful view of Boston and the harbor, were surround by the ocean, and had great weather. Oh and don't forget, we figured out what those machines were for! So it was still a successful journey.

The boardwalk

Hope you enjoyed reading!
-Emily  

p.s. I think I took a picture of those random machines that my sister was fascinated by, I'll try to find one and update the post when I do!

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A Day at the MFA

Hi everyone!

        My mom, sister, and  I have been attempting to be tourists in our own city this summer! There are so many things to do and see in and around the Boston area and New England in general. It is a place filled with so much history and culture. So many things have happened here and it is still an area so bustling and full of life. Although Boston can be an expensive city (it is listed in the top 10 of many travel websites as being one of the most expensive in the U.S.) there are a good amount of cheap or even free things to do though so don't worry! Many museums are free at certain times on specific days. There is also a program called Free Fridays which lists when many venues in the city and other parts of Massachusetts have no cost admission.

Here is a link to the site: 
 http://highlandstreet.org/programs/free-fun-fridays

       My mom, sister and I went to the MFA (Museum of Fine Arts)  this past Friday. It is one of my all time
favorite museums. I love that is has such a diverse collection and I love wandering through the exhibit halls and coming across new pieces and paintings. They have things from ancient Egypt and China, pieces from Europe dating back to the Middle Ages, Rembrandt masterpieces, paintings by Monet, contemporary art, and everything in between. They also always have really great feature exhibits such as the recent #techstyle one I was very excited about seeing.

       This exhibit was all about the relationship between fashion and technology. There were some really great concepts behind the pieces and showed a lot of ingenuity. There were 3D printed shoes, a Ralph Lauren purse with a built in charger for electronic devices, a few garments showing off their laser cut details. A jacket with solar panels, a dress from a Victor & Rolf collection that had a frame and could be hung up on the wall as a legitimate piece of art when not being worn, as well as countless other fascinating pieces utilizing technology in new ways.

The dress on the right is the Victor & Rolf one I mentioned

This designer made pieces that could fold up flat. The square on the left unfolds into a dress like the one on the right

This dress was made out of plastic and based off of a slow motion picture of water

There were 1000s of LED lights sewn into this dress which can light up different colors and make different shapes and patterns

       We also visited other galleries. Here are a few pieces I thought were cool, I didn't get to take too many pictures but I thought I'd show you some that I did get to take.

     We spent a good number of hours explore and there's so much more we didn't even get to see. I'm sure I'll be back again. I highly recommend visiting this museum if you have the chance. It is also very easy to get to and has its own stop on the Green Line.

Thanks for reading!
-Emily

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