summer outing #1

Our local Art Gallery is featuring a display of Emily Carr's creative works.  She was a fascinating woman who seriously "marched to the beat of her own drum" when women were not supposed to do so.  I admire her tremendously as an artist and as a woman.  I took the kids downtown to see her work.  We brought our sketchbooks and had a wonderful time wandering through the exhibit!

 We talked about how we loved that her paintings show 'movement' and that they quite often were of nature and/or our local First Nations culture.

 We then wandered through some of the rooms open to the public of this fantastic heritage home!  The living room (above) was humungous!  Notice how small the baby grand looks tucked into the corner of the bay window!

 Dinner for 12 (or more) easily fit in the dining room!

The foyer staircase was quite impressive.  My son was dying to go upstairs but the rooms are all used as offices and are closed to the public.

Fireplace in the main foyer.  The woodwork detail was fantastic!

After our visit to the Art Gallery the kids needed to burn off some steam so we visited Gyro Park, a beach that we seldom visit and had a picnic lunch.  The sea creatures are made of concrete and I'm sure have been there since I was a child!

I feel that the spur of the moment day trips to places close to home mean just as much, if not more to children as expensive getaways across the globe!  
Enjoy a creative summer,
~ joey ~