Kickoff lunch

Last of the raccoons?

Oh please, let this be the last of the raccoons!  Last night the neighbor dogs barked ALL NIGHT!  When I went into the bathroom this morning, I saw why.

It turns out that three coons were hanging on the side of my house.  Luckily, a trapper was not far from my house. He managed to get a noose on each of them and he will relocate them.

I couldn't get the picture of all three of them hanging on the bathroom window screen, but you can see two in this image.

Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art

 

Some of the NW Arkansas alumni of William Woods University (OK, to me, it is still WWC) met for lunch at Crystal Bridges today.  I have been intending to go for some time and just never got around to going.

I should have gone sooner.  If you grew up in the Ozarks, as I did, you will find the setting very familiar.  I was raised in Neosho and spent summers on Elk River.  The setting is in the hills with a small stream running through it.  They have put in some small dams to make pools and the museum is built over and beside the pools.  The surrounding area and the building are spectacular.  There are walking trails around the building and BOB and I will go to walk them when the temperatures are more moderate.

The art is quite impressive as well.  The main museum is laid out so that you see the art chronologically.  I didn't start taking pictures (allowed with no flash) until I had been through several rooms.  Here are the few images that I did take.  (Please excuse some of the photos that are a bit blurry.  It was the best that I could do with my phone.)

This is a world class museum, both for the art within and for the architecture and setting.

Oh, and the lunch was wonderful.

These pictures were taken from inside the museum.
Both are views of the same area, but the second one has some reflection from behind me.

	The Arkansas Traveler
By Neosho native Thomas Hart Benton