Great week, but all good things must come to an end ...

[A Donald Judd aluminum sculpture at the Chinati Foundation, Marfa, TX.] 

Today is a sad day.  Packing to leave Marfa early tomorrow!  We're off to the Big Bend National Park for a couple days, then we head slowly back toward Indiana.  We hope to swing up through the Guadalupe Mountains on the way (at the TX/NM border) and Wendell wants to do some fishing in a reservoir near there.

This week was fantastic!  The weather has been good (70s during the day and cool at night).  On Monday we toured the MacDonald Observatory and that was so interesting.  Tuesday spent around here and around town.  Wendell got a tour of the town, learning all of the local history from a new friend from church one day.  Our 48th wedding anniversary was this week and we got a beautiful bouquet from our youngest son and his family; went to a local restaurant for a special dinner that night.  Took a long bike ride on Wednesday.  Last night we had a last-blast special dinner at an over-priced restaurant in Alpine then stopped at the Marfa Lights Viewing Center (again the lights were a no-show but the moon rising behind Cathedral Mountain was spectacular). 

Most unique day was Friday.  We toured the Chinati Foundation here in Marfa for an all-day tour of several art installations on the grounds and at an off-site location downtown.  I am posting some pictures of that tour below.  What a day!  Lots of walking but well worth it.  The grounds are just wonderful; very unique use of an old army base in the desert.  The spaces are well used; artillery buildings, barracks, mess halls, gymnasium, etc.!  Donald Judd bought this place and installed some of his work as well as several other minimalist artists.  He used these large spaces to install large pieces of art!  Not always available in the average gallery or museum.  Some of the work was not interesting to us but lots more was than wasn't.  (You have to keep an open mind!)  Close as I can remember, artists represented are John Chamberlain, Carl Andre, Ingolfur Arnarsson, Dan Flavin, Roni Horn, Ilya Kabakov, Richard Long, Claes Oldenurg, David Rabinowitch, and John Wesley.  I'm sure I've spelled some of the names incorrectly!  If you're interested, read more about the place at www.chinati.org

It was sad saying goodbye to all of our new friends at the First United Methodist Church here in Marfa this morning.  Clementine, the pianist, played some Bill & Gloria Gaither songs for us (since we're from Indiana)!  And they gave us a couple of UMC coffee mugs!  What more could you ask!?  We feel blessed to have spent each Sunday with them.

I may not post again before we get home ... who knows?  Let's pray for nice weather back home in Indiana.