DAY 10: MARFA

this is marfa. isn't it wonderful? from this photo, it rather looks like a movie set. wherever you go, you're surrounded by a strange, quiet beauty. we love it.



today we got up early, grabbed some breakfast at a lovely used book store/cafe and headed to the outskirts of town for the 10am tour of the chinati foundation. definitely one of the best places for viewing art that we've been to. donald judd's work somehow fits so perfectly in with the desert environs. as the story goes, judd packed up & moved to marfa after becoming disenchanted with the nyc art scene. he bought a lot of land & old abandoned army buildings & created this little bizarre art center. we had to return at 2pm after a break for lunch for part two. it was a day of art tourism, for sure.

100 judd mil aluminum boxes presented in an old artillery building:







shots within/without the buildings:









the ilya kabakov permanent installation of a soviet schoolroom:





the john chamberlin building (in town, not in the desert):



the dan flavin marfa project:













can you spot the neon in the window?

claes oldenburg & coosje van bruggen's "monument to the last horse":



the last horse's name was louie.

viewing the large-scale judd concrete boxes:










after a fulfilling day of traipsing about the wilderness to look at so-called minimalist art, we relaxed with a lovely dinner at maiya's, marfa's chicest restaurant. but johanna could still wear her hoodie! it was really windy & food flew everywhere & kamran had to catch his glass of wine before it tumbled to the sidewalk for artie's enjoyment.





oh and p.s. we just grabbed a drink at the hotel bar (prolly the hippest spot around) & johanna correctly identified a pre-celeb! the son from little miss sunshine -- go see it when it comes out, it's wonderful, we saw a sundance festival preview. movie-type people are apparently here to shoot some big budget paul thomas anderson flick. (editor's note: we hate magnolia & jo hates boogie nights.) kamran is mystified by her celeb spotting abilities, honed by countless hours wasted reading tabloids in airports & online at work (shhh).

taos, here we come! we just booked in-room massages which, incidentally, will occur at the same time (knock on wood) that our movers meet kamran's parents at our new house.

DAY 9: ON THE ROAD (AUSTIN to MARFA)

We began our epic day of Texas driving with a few glasses of wine. Texas, as it turns out, has a wine country. We went to this one place, which was dog friendly, and very fun.



We sat on their deck. Look at the lizard!





Feeling pretty good, we headed off with half a case of Texas grape-juice!



The woman at the winery recommended a local watering hole (literal) where Arthur would be able to swim. Texas hill country is lovely.



Can you make a flip-book out of a blog? Here is Artie being a Lab. Adorable, no? We wanted to stay all day...




But we had places to go. Top of the list: Stonehenge II! (That's what it's called, but also well-named as the second of our roadtrip's fake Stonehenges! What's the deal with our country and Stonehenge?)



Some sheep crossed the road (chasing the chicken, no doubt) on our way to the highway.





And then the very long day of driving began in earnest. 300 some odd miles on I-10. (Which goes all the way to Santa Monica, by the way--passing, in order, Kamran's new job, our new house, and Johanna's new job. We're going to take a more winding path, in any case.)

The speed limit on I-10 in this part of Texas is 80 mph! Kamran loves cruise control. What he doesn't love quite as much is how, late in the drive, when Johanna pointed out a mural of a roadrunner on an underpass, she only then remembered that she had seen an actual roadrunner on the side of the road earlier in the day, but had neglected to mention it to Kamran, who loved that cartoon when he was little and has never, to his knowledge, seen a real one. Hmph.



Roadrunners aside, the drive into Marfa was quite something. It got dark, stormy, and VERY spooky. We think we saw the famous "Marfa lights" on the drive in--these mysterious lights, some kind of regular, local atmospheric phenomenon--but there was also an electrical storm, so we weren't sure. Marfa is in the middle of nowhere.




Stay tuned tomorrow for pictures from our weirdest, most beautiful stop yet.

DAY 8: AUSTIN

we really like austin - lots of snacking, shopping & sightseeing. we spent most of our time here on south congress, which we decided is the silver lake of texas.

amy's ice cream is yummy. johanna had some key lime 'scream while kamran opted for a root beer float. both enjoyed their treats immensely.



and artie made a new friend.



and, no kidding, the little pooch was wearing a shirt that read "mama's bubba" and his owner wore a shirt that read "bubba's mama." it was amazing. kamran asked johanna to gag him with a spoon, which she did easily as they were eating ice cream.

we bought lucchese boots. it took us a long time to pick them out. do you like?



for dinner, we headed to lockhart, which is apparently the bbq capital of texas. this is where we ate.



and this is what we ate. johanna preferred the sausage rings (with twine still on!) while kamran loved the brisket.



mmmm...that was good.





even though lockhart is right outside of austin, it feels super-rural. take a gander.





we got back to austin right before sunset...



...and headed to the congress avenue bridge. every evening at sunset, about a MILLION bats come out from under the bridge to head out into the night to feast on 10-30 thousand pounds of mosquitos & other bugs. it's pretty amazing & not quite as scary as johanna thought it would be.




On to Marfa in the morning!