#1 - Museums, Cool History! - Top 10 Ways to Beat the Summer Heat

It's Texas, it's July, and it's HOT! The kids are out of school, it's vacation time, and everyone is looking for something to do that is cool, relaxing, and entertaining. Today I am starting a series of blog posts titled Top 10 Ways to Beat the Summer Heat - my top 10 ideas on things you can do to stay cool and enjoy everything the Texas Brazos Trail region has to offer.


Top 10 Ways to Beat the Summer Heat:
1. Museums - Cool History

Did I mention yet that it's hot outside? I'm not originally from Texas (shocking, I know), so my #1 strategy for surviving the summers consists of staying indoors - which is why I've chosen museums as first way to beat the summer heat. Visiting local museums is a fantastic way to be indoors, keep cool, and have a great time.

The Texas Brazos Trail Region has many fantastic museums (I've already blogged about the Mayborn Museum and the George Bush Presidential Library). There are so many that I love, and I can't possibly list them all, but here are a few of my favorites:

• The Armstrong-Browning Library in Waco - Located on the campus of Baylor University, this Library is home to one of the largest collections of Robert and Elizabeth Barrett Browning's work in the world. My favorite thing: the stunning stained glass windows. They are more beautiful than my words could describe!
  
  
• The Children's Museum in Bryan - The kids will love this museum - there are so many hands on activities for them to do including: train building, building puzzles, playing at the grocery store check out line and more. My favorite thing: the 1970 VW Beetle that anyone can paint on.
  
  
• The Bell County Museum in Belton - This museum is a well done county history museum with hands on exhibits and a Chisholm Trail sculpture. My favorite thing: the fantastic temporary exhibits the museum hosts - currently they have authentic Rembrandt prints.
  
  
• The Mayborn Planetarium and Space Theater in Killeen - Space, the final frontier...Here's your chance to fly away into the stars. The Mayborn Planetarium has exhibits on space, Planetarium Sky Shows, Laser Light Shows, and Large Format Films. My favorite thing: the Planetarium show.

There are so many other really great museums in the Brazos Trail region, I just can't write about them all in one post! If you'd like to learn more about museums in the area, please visit the Texas Brazos Trail website and click the "attractions" tab.

Presidential Impressions

Yesterday I visited the George Bush Presidential Library and Museum, and wanted to share some of my favorite things about it:

• I love the new Oval Office exhibit - sitting behind the President's desk was fun, and you can get your picture taken - it makes for a really neat souvenir
  
• I love seeing all the gifts of state that they received - I wish people would give me stuff like that
• I really enjoyed the video they had of the George and Barbara Bush laughing and being silly - it made them seem like real people
  
• I love the sculpture outside of all the wild horses jumping over the Berlin Wall
• I was particularly impressed by the love story between George and Barbara - from the time they first met to now. In the candid/fun videos (mentioned above) they were always touching or had their arms around each other - still in love after all that time
• I enjoyed the space exhibit - particularly the platform you could stand on and feel the vibrations as a shuttle took off
• and (nerd alert), I did love the Star Trek and Star Wars memorabilia on display as part of the exhibit that dealt with how the space program affected pop culture.

To learn more about the George Bush Presidential Library and Museum visit their website.

da Vinci the Genius

When I first heard that the Mayborn Museum in Waco, TX was doing an exhibit about Leonardo da Vinci, my mind immediately jumped to The Mona Lisa, The Last Supper and The da Vinci Code. However, as I read the press release, I realized that this exhibit featured machines that were authentically recreated from sketches that Leonardoda Vinci had drawn.

I toured the Machines in Motion exhibit last week, and was absolutely stunned by the scope of da Vinci's inventions - the man was an engineering genius. I had so much fun going around to all the different machines and trying them out.

One of the exhibits I was particularly interested in was a wooden bicycle. Apparently the bicycle drawing was found in da Vinci's papers, but there is a controversy in the academic world regarding if it's really a da Vinci sketch. Some people attribute the sketch to one of da Vinci's students, while other people insist it was planted in his papers hundreds of years later. If the bicycle drawing really is that of da Vinci or one of his students, that would mean they came up with the concept of a bicycle 400 years sooner than it was actually invented!

If you're in Waco this summer, definitely stop by the Mayborn Museum. There's much more there to see than just the da Vinci exhibits. There is a large section of the museum dedicated to the natural history of Texas - including a recreation of the famous mammoth dig site in Waco, and dinosaur skeletons. There are also many discovery rooms for kids (or if you're like me, a kid at heart) that provide hands on exploring for topics such as: how television works, international cultures, or the human body. There's also a great museum store filled with things that make great gifts.

If you want more information about the Machines in Motion exhibit or the Mayborn Museum visit their website.

gswkiunqz2

Deep in the "Art" of Texas

It might seem a little bit biased to write about the town where my office is located as my first blog post, but Clifton really has a lot going on.

Widely known as being The Norweigan Capital of Texas, Clifton is also well known for art. Named as one of the Top 100 small art towns in America, Clifton has an active arts scene.

One of the newest art projects (put on by the Clifton Arts Network) is the Bosque Sculpture Expo. If you're driving through town you can't miss it - there are sculptures everywhere. My favorite one is the piece pictured in this post. I don't know if it has a formal name, but I just call it "the hummingbird" (for obvious reasons). It makes me smile every time I see it - it's so bright and fun, and moves in the wind. I don't know if it was placed next to a flower shop deliberately, but it seems like an appropriate place for this sculpture to be displayed.

All the art is for sale, and I was recently told that my 2nd favorite sculpture (on the corner of Highways 219 and 6) was recently sold. I think I might have to prepare myself for the possibility of losing my hummingbird at some point in the next year (yes, I consider this to be "my hummingbird" - if it ends up being your favorite sculpture as well, I am willing to share it)!

If you're in the area, stop by Clifton and drive or walk around town, pick out your favorite sculpture, stop for a cup of coffee, or shop in one of the antique stores (a few months ago former First Lady Laura Bush was spotted shopping at one of the antique shops downtown).

Clifton has so many other things that are worth seeing, but this blog is supposed to be "tidbits", so I'll have to save the rest for later!

The Clifton Arts network is hosting monthly art events in conjunction with the outdoor sculpture displays - for more information on that you can visit the Clifton Chamber of Commerce's website.