Saturday, January 16, 2010

A day of firsts

Today, Annika had many firsts: her first ride on the T, her first ride in her umbrella stroller, and her first visit to a museum! We went to the Museum of Fine Arts (or, as it's known in Boston, the MFA). Here we are in front of a sculpture of a baby's head:


Annie's much cuter than that baby ... you can also see her doing her new thing - pointing at everything.

The MFA had a special exhibit on the tomb of an Egyptian governor, circa 2000 B.C. Apparently, the MFA had discovered the tomb 100 years ago, in Deir el-Bersha, and investigated it then. Deir el-Bersha is in Middle Egypt, near the town of Minya.  We did not go there when we were in Egypt. My understanding is that this area of Egypt has seen some instability in recent years. People used to be able to take a Nile cruise all the way from Abu Simbel or Aswan up to Cairo, but this is no longer a common thing because of unrest in the Minya area. Or at least that was the story in 2006 when we went to Egypt.

Anyway, the MFA had the actual sarcophagi from the governor and his wife, a mummy head, and then all the items that they were buried with. I guess it took the museum 100 years to put together an exhibit on it. It was pretty impressive, although we've seen the various exhibits at the Egyptian Museum in Cairo and nothing can compare to those (or seeing the actual tombs of the pharaohs in Luxor!). But overall, it was an exhibit that was well planned, and interestingly, was partially on all the efforts they've made to preserve and restore the articles on exhibit. 

After our trip to the museum, we took a walk from the MFA to Copley, and then took the T home. The weather was sunny, clear and in the 40's today. It felt so good to get outside and get some exercise. Tomorrow we're supposed to get some more crappy weather, so I think the plan is to stay in and watch football.

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