rochester art center

 this was a 'road trip day'. i visited two museums outside of the metro area, first one was the rochester art center. it was inside their civic center building. i had been there before to see the blue man group, but that was over a decade ago. first time at this museum. i wanted to see a limited-run exhibit of celebrity photos that will be closing in a month. naturally i mostly recognized the ones of actors, such as steve martin. his photo was part of the article i found online about the exhibit. others included james earl jones, barbra streisand, and jane fonda. when i first arrived in town i stopped at a caribou coffee. the pumpkin spice coffee arrived right away but the lemon loaf was delayed. after the art museum i had lunch at the taco bell just north of downtown. then it was on to the next museum on my list, the marine art museum in winona, about 50 miles away. i already knew the famous painting, 'washington crossing the delaware', has been gone for more than two years, it was on loan by the then-owner and was sold. it looks like many of the paintings on display were on loan. there were some by ed moran, who did a series of paintings on american history, on loan from the naval academy museum. one of them was about explorer hernando desoto, except one of two captions said his name was 'ferdinand', odd how nobody had caught that one. obviously, one is not correct. there were some ceramic artworks, including of mermaids. the painting i liked most was 'stolen moment', showing a woman with a cap on and her eyes closed. i bought three greeting cards with art on them in rochester, and three postcards in winona. i stayed at the winona museum until just minutes before closing time. then i started my drive home. when i made a stop, it was at a holiday gas station in inver grove heights, for a quick dinner, some chicken sticks. i had been driving for two hours by then so it was time for a break. shortly after i got home i went to get groceries at aldi, then i started watching a football game on NBC. the iowa hawkeyes were home, against wisconsin. it was just before halftime, iowa was up 14-3. the hawkeyes went on to win, 42-10. during my walks i found 3 dollars 74 cents. i was in the car a lot for the day and it meant having the radio on. notable songs i had heard were 'when smokey sings' by abc, and 'nasty' by janet jackson.