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!”

A Visit to Zombie Nation at Geppi’s Entertainment Museum

Ages ago, I teased that my son and I visited Geppi’s Entertainment Museum. I’ve wanted to visit Geppi’s - and its collection of vintage comic, film and television memorabilia – for quite some time, but it took an exhibit featuring pop culture icons recast as zombies to get me to make the trek.

First, the museum itself is just cool. The space is awesome and every inch of wall space is crammed with something interesting.

There are literally hundreds of comic books.

Including presidents past…

And current!

Plus old movie posters, dolls, super heroes, statues and things I’ve never heard of, but that are still cool to check out.

Everyone's favorite redhead in black & white!

Before the NRA

Seriously, what the hell is this?

The Man of Steel wants your spare change!

Zombie Nation!

The Zombie Nation exhibit featured artwork from Devin Hannon in a variety of mediums.

I was slightly obsessed with the Silver Surfer.

It was life-sized and all kinds of awesome.

But there were other cool pieces in the exhibit, too.

My son was fond of Hannon’s version of two of his favorite animated friends.

We spent hours there and didn’t come close to seeing everything. And I took dozens more photos that I couldn’t cram into this post (you can see the rest here).

We will definitely be visiting Geppi’s again!

A Brief Moment of Quiet Contemplation