A Day at the Museum...and Monastery

Yesterday, I played hooky from work. And being the bad influence that I am, I dragged one of our staffers- Bekah Kitterman- along for the ride. We spent about half the day at the National Gallery of Art. I love that place! I wrote about half of the Chase the Lion small group workbook there, and I frequent their cafe on off-site brainstorm days. It's a great place to get out of the rut and to think outside the box. It was great to go through the museum with Bekah because she's an artist herself. I got to hear all kinds of cool background stories on different artists and their pieces that gave me a new appreciation for everything from 1800s landscape painting (which I already love) to more modern, contemporary, and postmodern pieces (some of which I love; some of which I hate; some of which I just don't get). And Bekah's great because she didn't freak out when the word "crap" slipped out of my mouth to characterize my opinion of Jackson Pollock's Lavender Mist.

We also hung out at the Franciscan Monastery for a bit and got a tour of the underground replicas of the catacombs and Bethlehem grotto. The fact that two church staff members would choose to visit a church on a vacation day is fodder for jokes, I know, but it was fun.