Renewal Leave - Part One - Sarasota Art Museum

Last Monday was my first official day of a summer off - renewal leave. I had jury duty in the morning and thankfully was dismissed at lunch! So I took myself to the Sarasota Art Museum in the old Sarasota High School. I've driven past it so much in the last four years on the way back and forth to work. It was really nice to wander through and so nice inside. 

There are some statues and permanent art pieces that are outside and a few on the inside. 

The second floor had this great texture exhibit. 

And then this exhibit is called Something Borrowed Something New - it's a bunch of art pieces on loan from private art collectors in town. 

The top picture of these two is an Annie Leibovitz. 

And this Tampa Orchid is a Mapplethorpe! 

And this one is a sculpture by Yoko Ono. 

The third floor was full of an exhibit by Sol LeWitt. 

 

Other Sightseeing in Greensboro

Since Wesley didn't jump until Saturday afternoon, I took another walk through downtown Greensboro on Saturday morning. 

The author O'Henry is from Greensboro and the other side of the book statue we saw the previous day had images and words from two of his most famous stories, including one of my favorites, The Gift of the Magi. Nearby was a statue of O'Henry himself as well as a dog from one of his stories. 

I popped into the park nearby which had some cool statues/seats and fountains. 

Then I made it back down to the International Civil Rights Museum, where the original Woolworth's Lunch Counter protest happened on February 1, 1960. These four freshman from North Carolina A&T University were the ones who started the movement. The entire lunch counter is preserved inside, but they won't let you take pictures in that section. It was a great museum and very well done. I'm so glad that I was able to attend. 

 

Those National Medals are Sweet!

It was HOT in Greensboro but it was a clear day for jumping. The original field was supposed to be 188 jumpers at the National Elite level. Only about 50 boys showed up to jump.  

The starting height was 1.72m. Wesley came in at 1.77m and cleared it on the first attempt.

He cleared 1.82m on the first attempt also. 

And he cleared 1.87m on the first attempt. 

At this point, there was a six way tie for first place, including Wesley! 

The next height was 1.92m. Wesley's PR is 1.93m. He missed the first two attempts and cleared the height on his third attempt. 

Only 9 jumpers moved on to the next height, 1.97m. Wesley missed all of his attempts but he was SO close. Only two boys cleared the height. Since the top 8 boys medal, our Wesley came in 5th place overall!!!!!!! We stayed for the medal ceremony, which was very nice and got some good pictures of Wesley and his sweet looking medal. 

To celebrate, we went to dinner at Mellow Mushroom and then crashed out at the hotel. 

Road Trip to Greensboro

Daryl and Wesley met me in Lakeland on Thursday afternoon and we roadtripped up to Greensboro, NC for Adidas Track Nationals. We made it to Truist Stadium at NC A&T University for packet pickup and his nationals bag. 

Afterwards we checked into our hotel downtown and went for a walk to find some dinner. 

It was Juneteenth and we happened to walk past the International Civil Rights Museum at the original Woolworth's building where the sit-ins started on February 1, 1960. 

Right in front of our restaurant Dear Dad, there were artists finishing up a beautiful Black Lives Matter mural in the road. 

Dinner was awesome! I had blackened salmon with spinach and sweet potato fries while the guys had birria quesadillas.