After 9 months of living with the pandemic you get a little stir crazy, so we decided to venture out on a weekend following as many safety precautions as possible. It was a welcome relief and did a lot to get the creative juices flowing again.
First stop was the Walter Cronkite Memorial on the Missouri Western State University Campus in St Joseph Missouri. In the open atrium, videos, memorabilia, photographs and an impressive timeline capsulate the remarkable career of a trusted journalist. For those of us who grew up in the 50s and 60s, Cronkite was a dinner-time staple giving us the news of the day with his closing line, “And that’s the way it is on (appropriate date)”. I long for those days when it was simply the news without all the opinion and arguing. They stated the facts and you made up your own mind. The memorial is well presented, and I think of interest to anyone living during that time or interested in journalism. Admission is Free and no reservation needed even during COVID, only a mask.
Next we decided to stay in a favorite Super 8 in Lamar, Missouri because of it’s location in relation to our destinations and cleanliness. While I would love to be staying in Kansas City with fine dining and take in a jazz concert…..that’s for another trip. Our mission was to limit our nighttime driving and break up a 7-hour trip to the Crystal Bridges Museum in Bentonville, Arkansas.
This was our fourth visit to the museum since it opened in 2011 and we have never been disappointed. The museum has an eclectic collection of art from Norman Rockwell’s Rosie the Riveter to white-wigged portraits to Au Café (a study in Synchromy) by Stanton Macdonald-Wright. The museum was founded by Alice Walton, daughter of the Walmart founder Sam Walton. It was designed by architect Moshe Safdie with a series of pavilions stretched across two creek-fed ponds in the forest. You not only see lovely art in the various galleries inside but wide swaths of nature outside as you walk from one gallery to another. Every window presents a different picture of nature with a sculpture garden and many trails to follow. Right now, there is a Northern Lights experience walking the trails on given nights.
This trip the traveling exhibit featured over 100 photographs of Ansel Adams (Sept 19-Jan 3) and other photographers influenced by him. I pointed out to my husband Mark how Adams work is immediately recognizable, and he had to agree. The black and white photographs created with the optimum lighting give the pieces a three-dimensional sense. In keeping with COVID, you need to make online reservations for timed entry into the museum. Since we decided to go at the last minute, our entrance was at 3:45. However the two hours were enough to take in the Ansel Adams exhibit as well as the permanent galleries. The limited patrons made for a pleasant and safe experience.
Because this was a Saturday and the museum closed at 6 pm, I was unable to visit the gift shop much to my husband’s delight. We also could not have dinner in their restaurant Eleven. It’s a coffee bar and snack shop during the day, however on Wednesday thru Friday nights and Sunday Brunch they serve first-class continental meals. One of my best memories was a Friday Fall evening having dinner in Eleven with local friends. The food and wine were excellent and the atmosphere breathtaking. As the sunset, this three-sided glass structure that juts out over the water in the woods dazzled with colors reflecting from the trees and bouncing off the décor inside. To top it off a wonderful jazz trio played that night. It was a first-class evening in a small Arkansas community.