Glass House / Throwing Stones

I saw a picture of Philip Johnson's Glass House when I was in college and have wanted to see it in person ever since. So I booked a tour for while Greg and I were in Connecticut last week and we went to check it out. Everything was going swimmingly in the visitors center in New Canaan where the tour begins, until our tour guide mentioned that old Phil had a passing fancy with... um... Nazis. She said that he came to denounce these beliefs and that professing admiration for the Nazi philosophy was "the biggest regret" of his life, but Greg did a deep dive into his biography after the tour and concluded that the "regret" was lip service to save his reputation, made just before the U.S. entered World War II. His affiliation with the Nazi party and his admiration for its doctrine was well documented in the '30s and '40s, and despite being defended [weirdly] by several prominent Jews, including Frank Gehry whom Johnson mentored, from what we read, he was a white-supremacist, anti-Semite, and generally terrible person. There's no denying that the Glass House is exceptional and his architectural designs were revolutionary, but the rest of his story is a huge bummer. 

This is the guest house, across from the glass house. It's not as bunker-like as it seems, there are skylights and three large windows in the back wall. But given his affiliations, maybe Phil liked the bunker-look.

Andy Warhol was a frequent visitor. 

Bulls, Bears, People from Connecticut

Grace Farms in New Canaan

We wanted to get out of Boston for a few days, so last weekend, Greg and I drove to Connecticut with plans to see a few places and also take the train from Stamford to New York one of the days we were there. 

Grace Farms is "a place for meaningful interaction where people of all ages, experiences, and interests come together to collaborate for good and pursue peace within our local global communities." Mmm k. 

We went because I was intrigued by the River Building which we were able to tour. Designed by architects from the Japanese firm SANAA, the building and grounds are minimalist and very appealing.

tour guide making us tea in the tea pavilion.

Stereophonic

Even though I was just in NYC last week, Greg and I went back last Sunday for lunch and a matinee. We Saw a new (opened in April) play that was fantastic - it's a not so loosely based on snapshot of Fleetwood Mac recording "Rumors" in 1976. The stage is set to look like a recording studio in Sausalito, California and the set never changes, even as weeks and months go by while the band bickers about relationships, song writing credits, musicality, how much cocaine is too much cocaine, and various other subjects while occasionally laying down tracks of new songs. It's a play, not a musical although the music is great, and we both totally enjoyed it. 

NYC - Someone's First Time in the Big Apple

A Girl and her Cronut

The Squid and the Whale

Three Bays: Monterey, Half Moon, and San Francisco

 

Monterey Bay

At the Monterey Bay Aquarium: 

Half Moon Bay

San Francisco / Bay (in the background)

Oh yeah, and... "Football is LIFE!!" 

Tulum

The Saturday after Thanksgiving it was twenty degrees in Boston, but after four hours in the air (flight to Cancun) and 90 minutes in a van (drive to Tulum), we had the sound of the Caribbean in our ears and powder-like sand under our feet. This is how we spent the week: wake to the sound of waves, walk to breakfast either down the beach or down the road, back to our beach bungalow, read, nap, swim, order lunch to be brought to the beach-bed or just have some snacks, read, lounge, walk to dinner, read, maybe a movie on the iPad, sleep - repeat. Didn't think about work, didn't think about much, had a great vacation.

We had the lower half of this casita, room was fairly simple but the view was spectacular... 

entrance to the hotel property from the road

path between casitas

most hotel zones are crowded and busy, but other than Saturdays when a lot of guests to the area arrive and depart, this is what the road out front looked like.

two minutes down the beach, where we ate most of our meals

across the street where we ate breakfast a couple of times

Our one adventure away from the Hotel Zone into the town of Tulum!
Other than to walk down the road to restaurants, there was really no reason
to leave our lovely beachfront.