All Smiles at the American Visionary Art Museum

Last Sunday, err, a few Sundays ago, my son and I took a trip to the American Visionary Art Museum in Baltimore.

It was, in a word: fabulous.

We had brunch at Mr. Rain’s Fun House. The restaurant is just as much fun as the website makes it appear. If you’re in the Baltimore area, I highly recommend you make this American contemporary restaurant a part of your visit to the AVAM. My son and I both loved the food and mommy really, really liked her Pimm’s Cup. Yum!

Brunch is without a doubt one of my favorite things. I am a huge fan of any institution that encourages you to drink with your breakfast. My French toast and wild-boar sausage were delectable. My 7-year old agreed.

I couldn’t talk him into ordering anything other than his usual cheeseburger, but it was super tasty. Which is good, since I ended up eating most of it after he devoured two of my slices of French toast! I wasn’t going to take a photo, but my son insisted his meal get equal attention.

This picture in no way does justice to the Tres Leches Cake we shared. Fantastic! My son didn’t like the vanilla flan that accompanied it, which just means more for mommy!

We sat outside on the patio and it was really lovely. I could see it being a very romantic spot in the evening.

Afterward, we headed inside to check out the many delights the AVAM has to offer. We had a lot of fun with this set of mirrors.

There was a photo booth by onomonoMEDIA that we both enjoyed. The museum’s current exhibit is “What Makes You Smile?”

We were more than happy to add our smiles to the bunch!

My son loved the room dedicated to toilet humor. It was all I could do to get him away from this Whoopee Cushion-covered bench.

We had a great time poking around outside as well.

This is his Blue Steel look…

There’s a stunning view of the Inner Harbor from the famous bird’s nest balcony.

I couldn’t find anyone to take our photo, so I dragged my son into my bathroom mirror obsession. He looks thrilled, doesn’t he?

The gift shop was really quite amazing.

There were literally thousands of things to look at and there’s no way we saw everything, despite spending a great deal of time inside.

Isn’t this great? Each drawer had a label and was filled with little toys. One drawer was marked “Dennis Hopper” and you opened it to find little plastic frogs.

Zoltar says… “You will return to the American Visonary Art Museum soon!”

Spending Time with My Peeps – Just in Time for Easter!

So this happened several weeks ago, but you know me. I’m not exactly Quick Draw McGraw when it comes to the posting business.

I was meeting a guy (for the first time) in Westminster, at a cute little wine bar. I arrived only two minutes late (which is an incredibly huge deal for me, people – huge!). But at some point after setting up the date, I had learned of the 4th Annual Peep Show going on just a few blocks down at the Carroll Art Center. So even though this guy had just met me, and even though we hadn’t even had a drink yet, he gamely set off with me in search of Peeps.

I wasn’t sure what to expect, but damn you can make a lot of stuff out of Peeps.

Now, Easter is kind of a big deal for JC, but I really can’t decide if this is meant to be ironic or not. Hmm…

This was one of the special “double-wide” displays and totally worth the extra inches, if you ask me!

Love it. Seriously. What more can you say? The doorbell even works!

Also great.

This was one of my favorites.

If EVERYONE jumped off a bridge, I absolutely would as well.

I submitted my photo for the EVERYONE project.

I love it. Of course.

It’s me!