Metropolis II at LACMA: Video!

I mentioned Artist Chris Burden's Metropolis II, still on view at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, in a previous post. It's a fascinating piece, and would keep many a kid enthralled for a good long while - even those past the train-obsessed age.

However, I just came across this video of the work, and thought it was worth sharing - it really gives you a sense of the piece - and it looks like so much fun!

LACMA is also hosting free story-times for the kids every Monday and Friday at 2 pm in the Korean Art Galleries. The Metropolis II exhibit is ongoing, so if you are headed to Los Angeles, be sure to stop by LACMA!

Marquette, Michigan: New Year's Eve Up North

Late afternoon on Lake Superior

We never get a white Christmas here in Texas.  But oh, do we love snow - so we decided to head north for New Year's Eve - really far north!  We spent just over a week in Marquette, Michigan, visiting with family - it's a lovely small town right on the shore of Lake Superior. Historically Marquette was  a mining town (and it still is), but is now more of a college town with a healthy downtown and plenty to do for kids and parents (whatever the season).

For starters, there is just so much natural beauty here - witness Presque Isle Park.  This serene wooded peninsula juts out into Lake Superior and is closed to cars in the winter, making it a great place for walks with fantastic views. In the summer you can ride your bicycle all the way out to the park along the paved path that hugs the shoreline. There are beaches and playgrounds along the way - we stopped at one icy beach and "skated" on the big ice puddles on the sand...

Strange beauty - sandy icicles 

There is also a bit of industrial beauty - on the short drive out to the park, we passed the enormous Ore Dock, with a train perched high above us, loading iron ore onto a huge ship. These incredibly long ships move slowly in and out of the harbor all day.

For the past several years, the Upper Peninsula Children's Museum has hosted a New Year's Eve party (with a deejay, cookies, and cider) for children and their parents. "Midnight" happens around 7:30 pm, out in the courtyard, with a countdown, a ball drop, and lots of cheering and noise-making when the ball hits bottom and starts flashing wildly. This is one of the most delightful and creative children's museums I've seen - so many fun and stimulating (and very much hands-on) exhibits are packed into this rambling upstairs space, it's inspiring.

The Ball Drop at the Upper Peninsula Children's Museum

The Head (those eyes can open from the inside) in the Body Exhibit

One corner of the Model Train

The Radio Station (broadcast to speakers located elsewhere in the Museum)

Mere steps (I'd say about three) from the Children's Museum is the unexpectedly wonderful Marquette Baking Company.  I did not expect to find top-notch bread and pastry in this neck of the woods (and I'm picky about bread), but here it is - their croissants are just so good! The Marquette Food Coop is also right next door (though soon moving into larger quarters a few blocks away) - it's my favorite place to pick up organic snacks, groceries, and whatever I forget from home (toothpaste, etc.).

The Marquette Baking Co.

One day, weary of throwing snowballs, we stopped by the NMU Superior Dome - the largest wooden dome in the world!  It's a truly impressive structure, and is free and open to the public.  My son ran races and generally got his ya-yas out just running around on the turf.

The NMU Superior Dome

The Peter White Library is another good place to go when you need to get out, but the weather isn't cooperating. The airy children's room takes up almost half of the basement level (it's light-filled thanks to the many windows and skylights), and includes a large play area stocked with toys and games, in addition to an impressive collection of books.

Sadly, the Marquette County History Museum was closed for maintenance this year - when we visited last year, we got to see their exhibits on local Native American history and culture (we hoped to get another look at their Wigwam), natural history, and Upper Peninsula culture. The Maritime Museum was also closed (for the season).  In summer, it's a fascinating place to learn about Lake Superior history. The Maritime Museum is a short walk along the lake from Lower Harbor Park and offers guided tours of the adjacent lighthouse.

The Maritime Museum

As for restaurants, nothing is too fancy, and there are many child-friendly options  - we ate pizza at Vango's, and had a pretty good health-conscious lunch at the Sweet Water Cafe.  For a nice dinner out, try the Vierling downtown (and order the whitefish!).

The Vierling, in the heart of downtown Marquette

Atlas Obscura

The Atlas Film Studios in Morocco

Atlas Obscura is an online resource every curious traveler should know about, particularly those with children in tow. Where conventional guidebooks will direct you towards the same old museums and sites until the end of time, the Atlas Obscura suggests that you go a different way, guiding you towards a possibly wonderful place (or at least an interesting one) you might never have heard about otherwise.

According to the site, "If you're looking for miniature cities, glass flowers, books bound in human skin, gigantic flaming holes in the ground, bone churches, balancing pagodas, or homes built entirely out of paper, the Atlas Obscura is where you'll find them." As it happens, I am looking for these things.  Or rather, I am open to finding them, or whatever else is out there (and is kid/family-appropriate!).

The Evolution Nature Store in New York City

The Sanctuary of Truth on a beach in Thailand

Kids, naturally, are often drawn to the obscure, the grotesque, or the somewhat strange.  Contributors to the Atlas not only identify interesting sites, but provide the often fascinating story behind them. The Thai Sanctuary of Truth, for example, is not an ancient temple, but a modern one (construction began in 1981); its profusion of carvings incorporate multiple regional religious traditions. The Atlas Film Studios, in Ouarzazate, Morocco, turns out to be the largest film studio in the world. Scenes from Star Wars (among many other familiar films) were shot here. The Studios offer tours daily.

Using the Atlas, you will find historic sites of all kinds - outsider art, cabinets of curiosities, museums dedicated to esoteric subjects, natural wonders, and places that defy categorization.  Visiting hours, prices, additional online resources, and any other pertinent information is helpfully listed for each site.  

Design Panoptikum in Berlin

Salar De Uyuni in Bolivia (Salt Flats)

Washington D.C.: Roy Lichtenstein at the National Gallery

Here's a big new art exhibit that may grab the kids' attention, and yours too - Roy Lichtenstein: A Retrospective just opened at the National Gallery in Washington D.C.

The paintings (the exhibit includes sculptures and drawings as well) are fun and thought-provoking - I'm fascinated by the Mirrors series and I think a child would be too!  Even if they're not usually excited by museums, Lichtenstein's work will likely get kids thinking about the possibilities of art, and how different ways of doing things (comics, big serious paintings) can relate to eachother.

The exhibit runs through January 13, 2013.

Upcoming LiveStream: Century of the Child from NYC MOMA

A while back I posted about the exhibit at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City, Century of the Child: Growing by Design, 1900-2000.  The exhibit runs for a few more weeks, through November 5.

This Friday afternoon (U.S. Eastern Time), the Museum is hosting a symposium entitled The Child in the City of Play, which will be livestreamed. While not directly related to travel, the symposium will touch on themes that should be inspiring to travelers with children, including the intersection of Cities and Play.  I plan to listen to at least part of it - join me!

Copenhagen, Denmark

What follows is a verrrry incomplete list of Places You Must Take Your Child While in Copenhagen (or Kobenhavn) – after all, we were there for less than a week!  Not nearly enough time to do everything we wanted.  So instead of an exhaustive list, I’ll tell you what we did do that was wonderful – which was just about everything!  What fabulous spots did you find while in Copenhagen?   

Tivoli Let’s just get this one out of the way, because, come on: TIVOLI!  It’s always the first thing on everyone’s list.  Yes, it was fun.  However our son was too short to go on most of the rides (he was 5 1/2), so we spent much of our time there at Petzi’s World, which is an admittedly delightful playground within Tivoli.  We also spent an insanely long time in line waiting to order food. I think next time we may skip Tivoli and head to Bakken, another historic pleasure park located outside of the city, in a more bucolic setting. 

Petzi's World at Tivoli

National Museum of Denmark The National Museum is a winner for everybody – beautiful displays of art, artifacts, interior architecture, mummies, etc. There is also a wonderful kid’s play area that includes a Viking boat, enchanting settings for dress-up and make-believe, and lots of opportunities for climbing and hiding.

Rosenborg Palace Garden We could have spent all day here – the formal gardens are so beautiful, and so relaxing to simply wander around.  Our son could have spent all day just in the gorgeous playground here.  Its design is incorporated into the formal arrangement of the gardens as a whole, and is enclosed by hedges.  Four distinct play areas extend from a central sandpit, which has a "moat" and is presided over by two incredible carved wooden dragons.  The play areas are simple and even elegant – one was a small forest of wooden posts, some of them with little carved elements here and there.  Another area was similar, but with wooden stumps instead of posts. There is a small café across the path if you get hungry.

Rosenborg Castle and Royal Treasure The castle is beautiful, and do explore it.  But the Royal Treasure – good lord!  The collection of jewels is large and exquisite and so sparkly it made me crazy. 

The University of Copenhagen Botanical Garden We wandered into these gardens by chance late one afternoon, and were glad we did.  It’s a beautiful and fascinating place to wander and make discoveries.  So many winding paths and little botanical worlds within the garden.

                       

The Round Tower Do you need to exhaust your young one?  The Round Tower features a winding interior ramp that goes up and up and up…  at the top there is a small outside viewing area, with views all around.  We were grateful for the tiny and unexpected bathroom about halfway up.

Louisiana Museum of Modern Art This wonderful museum is a few train stops north of the city and we almost didn’t go for that silly reason – I’m so glad we did!  The collections and exhibits were terrific, and the site itself, studded with large sculptures, is just a delight to stroll around.  There is a large grassy hill (great for rolling down) that looks out over the sea, with a wooded hillside criss-crossed with narrow footpaths.  The footpaths are part of an art installation.  

At the rear of the building is a large children’s wing, with connected rooms for different art activities.  The small lego room features a table and wall covered in grey lego flat pieces – all of the legos were yellow.  This simplified color palette really makes you focus on form – I thought it was great.  At the bottom of the wing is a large sculpture studio, with generous tables and slabs of clay ready to be worked.  From here we headed right out into the back of the property, where a path winds around a small lake (look for the miniature houses hidden in the woods) and a long hillside slide proved irresistible to my son. 

Royal Naval Museum This museum is home to hundreds of meticulously crafted scale model sailing ships.  I didn’t think of this as my cup of tea before we went, but I found them stunning.  The ships were used as models for shipbuilders, who might not be able to read or understand technical drawings.  My son was more interested in the very detailed dioramas dramatizing historic sea battles.  There’s also a terrific children’s play area in the basement with a pirate ship and “docks”.

Eating

  

While I wish we had had the chance to dine at Noma, we mostly kept it cheap and no-frills when it came to meals.  This involved eating more hot dogs than I really care to admit.  We couldn’t believe how many hot dog vendors we came across, but apparently it is a Thing.  Luckily, we also found a great little pizza place near our hotel, right next to a skate park – we dined al fresco and O got to practice his version of parkour as soon as he was finished.

Pizzaria La Fiorita: corner of Nansengade and Ahlefeldtsgade Streets