On my motorcycle trip this year and I didn’t do my research properly, and got to Philadelphia one week before the Cleopatra exhibition opened at the Franklin Institute. Since work was still slow, I decided to fly back to Philadelphia to check out the exhibit.
As luck would have it, I came down with a cold a day before my flight out of LAX. I was glad that I had been forced to fly out business class due to the convoluted American Airlines frequent flyer redemption constraints. In Philly was staying with my friend from college days and depending on him for transportation. First day was very busy, taking in the Japanese house in the botanical garden, the Cleopatra exhibit, and the movie Agora. Photos of the Japanese house are at:
http://ikemi.info/graphics2/JapaneseHouse/index.html
That worked out well, since Agora had already finished in LA before I had a chance to see it, but it was just opening in Philly. The movie complemented the exhibit at the Museum nicely since it takes place in the Alexandria of ~400AD, and brings to life Cleopatra’s city.
Somehow we also fitted in wandering around Philadelphia and seeing the Liberty Bell, Independence Hall, and the exterior of Bets Ross’ house. Phots at: http://ikemi.info/graphics2/Phl2010/index.html
The next day, Wednesday, we checked out smaller museums near Doylestown. One was the Mercer Museum, which is a collection of everyday artifacts from early America. The second was Glencairn, which houses the family collection of the Pictou family, who were prominent New Church members. Photos at http://ikemi.info/graphics2/Glencairn/index.html
Thursday we wanted to visit the Barnes Collection before its big move, but apparently everyone else had the same idea, and it was booked out-visits are only be appointment. Instead we went to the Philadelphia Museum of Art. We didn’t try to see the whole museum, since we had both been there before. Instead we concentrated mainly on the Asian art galleries. I hadn’t appreciated before how good some of the installations are. Some Photos at:
http://ikemi.info/graphics2/PhlMuseumArt/index.html
Thursday night I took the Amtrak to Baltimore. There was a surprisingly good restaurant in the 30th Street Station, which is kind of an interesting place. I ended up taking a fairly late train because of the Amtrak’s severe pricing policy which penalized you for earlier tickets. This wouldn’t have been too bad, except I had to take a bus from the BWI train station to the airport, and a second one to get to the rental car center. It’s interesting to note that LAX wasn’t the only airport where they didn’t take the light rail all the way into the airport. Budget took forever to process the customers ahead of me, so it was pretty late when I got to the Motel 6 in Linthicum, which is about 6 miles from the Inner Harbor.
I lucked out since the weather wasn’t that bad in Baltimore. I found parking for $19. I looked at the registration line for Otakon at the convention center. I probably could have taken the light rail into the city, but according to the schedule I saw, it shuts downrelatively early. As it turned out, I never really stayed that late in the Inner Harbor, so I probably could have taken it.
My reason for going to the Inner Harbor was the Otakon anime convention, the second biggest anime convention in the country, after Anime Expo back in L.A. I’d been to Otakon last in 2004 and the registration line seemed to be much longer than I expected. I decided that I’d let the line die down and went to the Baltimore Aquarium. I’d been there once before, but it was still an interesting, if expensive little side trip. The biggest thing I learned was that jellyfish are taking over the oceans of the world, probably due to global warming. Also that male dolphins can develop long term relationships with each other. The rain forest exhibit was smaller than I remembered, but the Australis exhibit was pretty interesting. I was lucky that the weather was hot but not too bad so that it was possible to walk around outside if you remembered to drink water. Fortunately, there’s a big Barnes and Noble near the aquarium that’s convenient for getting a cold drink. Until Sunday it was relatively uncrowded. Aquarium photos are at: http://ikemi.info/graphics2/BaltimoreAquarium/index.html
I got into Otakon in time for the opening ceremonies. After that there wasn’t much that I immediately wanted to see, so I decided to go to the Walters Art Museum. From my previous trips to Baltimore, I had come to think of the Walters as one of my favorite mid-sized art museums in the world. It was easy to get there since the city has a free shuttle bus in and around the Inner Harbor. Admission to the Walters and the Baltimore Museum of Art is free due to a grant. I spent the whole afternoon there until closing time when I got the bus back to the Convention Center. I caught a few panels and then headed back to my Motel 6.
Saturday parking was almost half the price of Friday where I started with the classic anime movie Sea Prince and the Fire Child which I had heard about on a podcast. I bounced around to a few panels and anime showings after that. Fortunately the Convention Center isn’t that big, although it does get crowded and people still try to pose for pictures in the wrong places although there are rules against that. It was nice that not everyone was dressed as a Bleach or Naruto character, but the cosplay in general wasn’t very entertaining and I had long ago lost interest in it.
In the early afternoon some idiot pulled a fire alarm and the entire Convention Center had to be evacuated, all 29,000 people. I figured this would be a mess (rightly from what I heard later on podcasts) and headed for the Walters Museum again since I hadn’t seen everything the previous day. The museum was better than I remembered it since some of the galleries that were under construction the last time I was there were finished. You can also now take pictures without flash to your heart’s content. I especially liked the little Byzantine gallery, since that is one of my special interests, but there are others of equal interest. Most of the exhibit items are of high quality. Walters Photos: http://ikemi.info/graphics2/WaltersMuseum/index.html
I missed the Maruyama panel by the time I got back to the Convention Center. I think I went to panels on Gundam and Legend of the Galactic Heroes which were pretty interesting. I tried to go to dinner but I found the the two brewpubs that had been located in the Inner Harbor were gone. The only ones were north of the city. I had a terrible dinner in a sports bar across from the Convention Center where the service was very slow and they got the order wrong. At least the beer was good. After dinner the panel on director Akiyuki Shinbo was really good and I decided to call it a day after that.
Sunday is the short day and I started off late with the live Action Ten Nights of Dreams which was kind of an art film. Some sequences were beautiful and others were just weird. I followed that with Lupin the Third Episode 0 which I stayed too long at since I only got to the final part of the poorly attended Japanese Directors’ Panel. They really need to get past the idea of DVDs. A few photos from Otakon at http://ikemi.info/graphics2/Otakon2010/index.html
I skipped the closing ceremonies and headed for the Baltimore Museum of Art. If you had to pick between the two, the Walters would be the one to visit. For free I can’t complain (although I had to pay for the parking). The sculpture garden is interesting and they did have their Japanese Friendship Doll on display. Photos at http://ikemi.info/graphics2/BaltimoreMuseumArt/index.html
After that I visited my cousins in Pasadena for dinner. We got a little bit of drizzle there.
Monday I visited the B&O railroad museum. Some of the exhibits I remembered from my previous visit didn’t seem to be there. Perhaps they were destroyed when the roof of the roundhouse collapsed a few years back. The roundhouse was restored and looks beautiful. Some of the railroad cars, though, look like they are overdue for restoration. Photos at: http://ikemi.info/graphics2/B_O_TrainMuseum/index.html
On my way to Washington DC (actually south of DC on the beltway) I stopped at the National Cryptological Museum. I had stopped there once before, but there’s a lot of information there and I think they had some new exhibits, or at least ones I hadn’t checked out before. There was an interesting one on the secret codes that hobos used. In the Memorial Park they had added the naval reconnaissance version of the B-66, in remembrance of one that was lost in a bad carrier landing. I messed up and missed the gift shop since I didn’t realize that it closes a half hour before the rest of the museum. Photos at http://ikemi.info/graphics2/Cryptologic%20Museum/index.html
The next day, my last one, I headed for Arlington Cemetery to catch the light rail system. Unfortunately, the lanes to the cemetery were blocked off for some reason and I had to drive all around the Mall to finally get back there from a direction that wasn’t blocked. After getting on the train, my first stop was the Smithsonian Museum of American History. I got to see the restored flag and I liked the galleries on transportation. I’ll have to tell my relatives from Wattsonville that Wattsonville is included in one of the exhibits as an example of one of the shipping points on the West Coast that the railroads were built to reach.
After that I walked around in search of the Japanese American Memorial, but the directions I got off Google were completely wrong. They took me beyond the Cocoran Gallery. I thought of visiting it, but it’s closed on Tuesdays. At least I got a good look at the area round the White House. From there I swung around the Washington Mounument and the World War II Memorial to the middle of the mall. Fortunately I found an information stand where I got a map and the correct directions to the Japanese American Memorial, which is north of the Capitol. I also found a hot dog stand where I rehydrated. To cool off I went to the semi-underground Freer, xxx and African Art Museums. These are some of my favorite museums on the Mall. From there I went through the National Gallery just to keep cool, and finally found the Japanese American Memorial. It was larger than I expected. I thought there would just be a plaque there. Photos at: ikemi.info/graphics2/WashDC2010/index.html
There were still things I would have liked to have seen, but I needed to catch my flight in the evening so it was time to catch the train back to Arlington and head for Dulles.
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