Cincinnati and Miami : 2025-07

I was able to visit Cincinnati again (it had been awhile) and this time was with someone aware of the town's famous chili. Fortunately, our hotel was only about two blocks away so we could get a taste. We went to Skyline Chili (also at Wiki). The basic is a 3-Way which gets you the spaghetti covered with chili and topped with cheese. We both got 4-Way which adds onions. They'll throw beans on for a 5-Way. They add a bit of cinnamon with certainly makes it unique. It's goin on 76 years so it certainly has a following.

Here is my 4-Way before digging in.

We didn't have a lot of time in Cinci but at least we partook in a local custom. I had more time in Miami and I walked to the Maurice A. Ferré Park (also at Wiki). The park itself has a Dogs and Cats Walkway and sculptures. You can see all 57 cats and dogs in the proceeding link. The animals were painted by over 50 local artists but what I couldn't find was a tribute to who actually made the aluminum statues. They were very well done. Luis Miguel Rodriguez is mentioned in some articles/places, but I'm still unsure. Here are a few I took...

L: Boxer, artist Edgar Gutiérrez, Bernard I.

C: Great Dane, artist Rafael Carabano, Hero.

R: Burma, artist Hander Lara, Imposter.

Right next to the park were some handy locations to visit - the Frost Museum of Science and the Pérez Art Museum - Miami (or MAMM). The science museum was pretty cool and had several rooms to visit. The Pérez had more space than you'd expect, but I wasn't that impressed with the collection. There were a lot of photos.

There were many things to look at but I thought the Medusa jellyfish were cool (top). I despise them, but they always look impressive in the water. I forget the long nose fish, but it was with the Lionfish.

They colors of these pictures turned out strange, but Lionfish are cool to watch.

As for the Pérez Art Museum Miami, I took a few pictures...

L: Zilia Sánchez (or here) (1926-2024), Sin Titulo, 1971.

R: The map to the Frost Museum of Science and my arm bands to both.

I took a picture of Sin Titulo because of the formed canvas. I thought that was a good idea and something I could try in the future.

The two pieces are by Gyula Kosice. There were about 12 of these waterdrops. They are plastic and many had lights and water. He was a co-founder of the Arturo and Madi movements. This exhibit was called Intergalactic.

On the left is the floor under The Hydrospatial City (great pics here) which I thought was just as cool, if not cooler than the pieces. They are pretty nifty, too, but the shadow seemed to catch the vibe and "space" of the Hydrospatial City. Above right is a shot of some of the pieces. Most even had little people on them which was a nice touch. Kosice worked on this for almost six decades (1946-2004).

Once again, Florida was very generous - military and/or vets can get into both the Frost Museum of Science and the Pérez Art Museum for free. Super nice and you have no guilt if you leave early.

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Boston : 2025-07

Another trip took me to Boston. This time, however, I arrived mid afternoon so I was limited as to where I could go (business hours), so I just walked around an saw what I could see. Here are some things that caught my eye...

Near the hotel was the Christian Science Plaza which has a nice reflecting pool and pretty cool buildings so I walked down there. Above left is a shot of the plaza. The center pic shows the reflecting pool and the Mother Church of Christian Science. Most things were closed so I walked the other way - toward that silver building - to see the Trinity Church (Boston), above right. The original was burned in the Great Boston Fire of 1872. The church was also closed, but it sits just across the street from the Boston Public Library. This was a bit of a hidden gem. Aside from beautiful rooms open to the public, there were several murals.

I walked upstairs and the top floor had murals by John Singer Sargent and I've mentioned I'm a fan of his work. The full cycle is called Triumph of Religion. They had these nice laminated cards that talked about the artist and the individual sections of the mural. He worked on these over 20 years in London and shipped them to America. Here's an article by Schliefke, Sargent's sketches for the work, and a new interpretation of the works. One of the murals, Synagogue, gets a lot of attention and got Sargent a lot of bad attention. Above left is the card you can read while you're there. In the center is a picture of a rather intimidating Mary in a Pietà you probably won't see elsewhere. I'm not particularly a fan of the upper right picture but it was one of the best lit areas.

Above left is above the stairwell from the ground entrance up to the library and galleries. The murals surrounding this entrance/foyer are by Pierre Puvis de Chavannes. I wasn't really drawn to these murals, but he was known for murals and was sometimes called "the painter for France". The left picture above is the layout of the murals with brief descriptions. Sargent's card had that too, but it was so worn out I didn't take a photo.

The last room I saw was the Abbey Room and its murals. Above is the card, but a very readable PDF is here. The works of Edwin Austin Abbey are titled The Quest and Achievement of the Holy Grail.

On the left, Sir Galahad the Arthurian Round Table and the Siege Perilous - he survived. I thought the figure in the white robe was superb. Above right, Sir Galahad crosses the seas to Sarras. I thought the angel was very well done and the grail is glowing under its cover.

This is the same picture with a zoom in on the monk giving Galahad the key to the Castle of Maidens. A detail of Abbey's mural is on the Wiki page for the Castle of Maidens. Similar to the figure in the white robe a few pictures earlier, I thought the monk and his robes were terrific. I hope to be able to paint fabric like that some day.

Two statues facing each other in front of the library. One is holding a sphere and the other a brush and palette. There are names listed which correspond to those two regimes - science and art. I would also call these two statues "The Names We Choose" because there are only eight names per side. I'll give my two cents...

The science side: Newton, Darwin, Franklin, Morse, Pasteur, Cuvier, Helmholtz, Humboldt. All I can say is, you get eight names and you have to include Darwin?

The art side: Raphael, Titian, Rembrandt, Velasquez, Phidias, Praxiteles, Michelangelo, Donatello. That is a tough list to make with only eight slots.

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Hawgs and Steak : 2025-07

KC and I flew down to the Pueblo Airport to see the Pueblo Weisbrod Aircraft Museum (PWAM) for a second time. We were hoping to see the F104 Starfighter which was supposed to be finished. It was not, but they did get an A-10 Thunderbolt II. If you didn't know, the first Thunderbolt was the P-47. It was good to stand next to one again to remember how big they are. And we had nachos and hot dogs at the airport's FBO, formally Flower, now Freeman Holdings or Freeman Jet Center. They have a great setup.

On the way down and in front of the museum.

Pretty hot day but surprisingly green for the area.

This is their new A-10 (699). It's on loan, but for sale here. This jet flew 64 missions in Operation Desert Storm, from King Fahd International Airport, Saudi Arabia. The picture on the left is at Pueblo, the picture on the right is from September 2023.

We stumbled across the STEM corner where a 3D printer was toiling away. However, next to it was one of the best things in the museum. It is the MICROEYE Discovery. I think it was taking things (whatever you placed under it) up to 4K magnification. It was amazing. And we even saw a real grasshopper which happened to be in the area. We finished the day with a nice steak supper and homemade Caesar dressing.

I added this because it's kind of a museum piece. It was a nice little model for

teaching at a flight school where I fly. It was sad to see it like this one day.

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NASA 100 | 2017-10

My neighbor (very nice of him) reminded me NASA (the center at Langley) was celebrating their 100 anniversary.  So I took a look.  What I did not expect was the length of lines.  Yes, there were lines to get into certain buildings.  Well done, NASA.

A sculpture near the entrance and a very well-kept OV-10 Bronco (right).  

This was cool...looks fast.  It is a wind tunnel model for their quieter supersonic project.  The whole process of setting up the wind tunnel is quite impressive.  They call this one the 14x22 (it's dimensions in feet) and here is more info about it.

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The vacuum spheres retro style and a zoom out below left.  Below right is the globe seen at the gate.

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NASA has a robot - the ElectroImpact and it fabricates in carbon fiber.  They had it on a looped program to show off its moves.  Talk about precision...watch how the head simply does not move even if the arm needs to.  It was so awesome.  All those spikes are spindles to hold rolls of carbon fiber.  It essentially 'sews' the carbon fiber into any shape you need.

Here are two gifs I made of the robot, but you can see a longer video at youtube.

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Finally, there was some great artwork for this event and/or NASA projects.  Here are three examples.

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