7-24-2010 Richmond

So last month, before all this heat started, I had found a bargain at the Richmond Marriott and booked a night. After all, Richmond should have some good stuff, right? Sue was up at Adelphi working this week and mentioned to one of the ladies there that we were going to Richmond. "Richmond????" she said. “Whatever for?”

Well there was a Tiffany exhibit at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts in Richmond and we wanted to see that. And who knew what else. So after the Alexandria Farmer's market again (worked up a good sweat just walking down and back) we left Alexandria at about 10:30. THREE HOURS later we got to the Museum. Of course, I95 was a mess and so was highway 1.

First we got some food and shared a table with two Richmond ladies who sounded really down South. They told us about the old Museum. One was going to an art class in Santa Fe in September. Friendly folks.

We toured the Museum - the show was worth the trip. Found that Tiffany's company did many, many Church windows - they had a whole division of the business for that, almost mail order. So we probably won't go out of our way to just see Tiffany windows in Churches anymore, with the exception of one Church in downtown Richmond. There were also lamp collections, design sketches, vases and other glass figures. It was a fairly big show and we really enjoyed it. The fact that the Tiffany window we saw in Staunton was signed by Tiffany turns out to be very special, since usually the staff did the windows - of course they were pretty top notch artists.

It was 4pm by the time we got out. We decided to just head for Church. We went to the Cathedral downtown. It was big but otherwise as expected. Then we got some food at Panera and then headed to the hotel. We found we had valet parking included in the special rate and we could also have taken the shuttle to dinner. Oh well, us rubes are just not used to these luxury places.