Ancient Egypt, Distorted Rooms, and Renoir, Oh My!

One of the sarcophgi in the Irethorrou exhibit

So my sister and I had a great time in San Francisco, and I hope my friend Louvie did as well. We arrived Friday morning, found the hotel, and then hung out at a mall called the Metreon until Louvie arrived. I have fond memories of the Metreon but I was a little disappointed to see the mall was being renovated so NONE of the electronics stores that used to define the mall were open. But they still had resturants, the movie theatre, and an arcade, so we played a few games in the arcade and looked at the tiny bookshop (the only shop still open) while we waited for Louvie. We also saw this awesome star in the Metreon's video game walk of fame:

After Louvie arrived we checked into the hotel, ate some sushi at the Metreon, and then jetted off to the de Young musuem on San Fran's awesome public transit. We saw the King Tut exhibit which was really cool. They set it up to make it seem a little like you were walking into a tomb with these big wooden doors that opened automatically into this dimly lit room. A little cheesy but fun, and I appreciated the attempt at showmanship. We weren't allowed to take pictures in the exhibit but I found the picture below on Wikipedia. It's a coffinette I saw in the exhibit that carried Tut's liver.

But I was particulalrly interested by a tiny sarcophagus which was one of two that contained two mummified fetuses that scientists theorized were the still born children of King Tut and his half-sister Anaksunamun.

I was so tired by the time I got back to the hotel, I just passed out, but my sister and Louvie went out to a resturant again after that.

The next day Louvie had an interview to go to (the reason he was visiting) and my sister and I went to the Exploratorium where we saw many various science exhibits and played around in this distorted room:

It's a giant Chrissy and tiny Cherie! I'm sure my sister wishes this were the real natural order of things.

Then on Sunday we managed to cram in one last museum, The Legion of Honor, where they have an actual mummy (as opposed to the Tut exhibit). This mummy was a priest named Irethorrou.

But aside from the mummy the Legion of Honor has a lot of awesome art! I'll have to go back if I'm ever in San Francisco again so I have more time to appreciate it.

I was ecstatic to see this famous painting by Renoir, probably just as excited as I was to see a real mummy. Possibly even more excited since I wasn't expecting t. It's called La Loge (The Theatre Box) and I've seen it dozens of times in reproductions or books while researching impressionism. I'm a huge Renoir fan and this is a very well-known painting by him.

I liked this statue of Baccus and Ariadne but mostly I put it here because I'm really proud of my camera work in capturing the dramatic lighting.

I was really impressed by the book in this statue. The pages that the boy has his fingers between look so real. And you can also see Louvie and my sister in the background so that will allow me to remember why I was at this museum in the first place when I'm old and senile.