THE HOLIDAY AND MUSEUM BUS TRIP

It was a beautiful day for a drive along the seashore heading up to the Highlands for a girls' night of movies and great food. After dinner at the Marina Diner, we settled in for a night of movies ("The Holiday" with Cameron Diaz & Kate Winslet) and feasted on unusual snack combinations
which included chocolate eclairs, bagel pretzels with spinach dip, chips and salsa, goldfish and chardonnay. In the morning, we headed for Brookdale for our bus trip to the Philadelphia Art Museum. We spent the early part of the day at the public tour of African American Art and the large scale paintings from India. Then across the street on the shuttle to the Perelman Building, with its beautiful art deco exterior ornament (office building transformed into museum annex)
to see "The Peacock Male: Exuberance and Extremes in Masculine Dress".

MAKING THE TOY THEATRE

Today we went to Princeton with my grandson, Christopher for his ear doctor visit. We usually get an early morning appointment and spend the rest of the day on Princeton University campus. After lunch at the student center, we went to the Cotsen's Children's Library, a very special place for the imagination. The current exhibition, "Making the Toy Theatre" shows the wonderful work of Henry James Webb, English puppeteer and toy theatre maker. The creative process from drawing of the figures to the final ornamentation of the puppets using elaborate metal tinseling is featured in three large displays. Sadly, it is a forgotten children's past time of the 19th Century, when families would sit in front of the fireside for an evening of pantomine and toy theater.