Date Night With the Willys

 On Saturday night we got a sitter and went out for a date. We had a gift card to Outback, so we went there for dinner and were pleasantly surprised at how good the food was.  Aside from the yummy salmon and pork tenderloin, we also had a discussion about a marriage article we'd seen floating around the internet.  Good conversation. After dinner I helped a poor teenage girl that was having a prom night disaster in the bathroom. A server had accidentally spilled red wine all over the front of her gown. It was really really sad. I got some club soda and lemons from the bar and we scrubbed and blotted out as much as we could. It turned a muted purple color and her dress was blue. I felt really bad for her and just wanted to help her realize that this night-while a big deal-would not determine her future, and that it was her attitude about the unfortunate situation that was what really made her beautiful and what would control whether or not she had fun that night.  I hope she listened. It would be sad if her potentially fun and memorable evening was tainted by something she had no control over.  Pictures were done, she still looked incredible. At that point, what else is there to do but just go have fun at the dance?

After dinner, we had planned to go to the Norman Rockwell exhibit at Crystal Bridges, but then remembered that the museum closes earlier than usual on Saturdays.  The museum website said that the Skyspace was open until 30 minutes after sunset.  It's free, our original plans had been foiled, and we had about an hour before sunset, so we decided to check it out.

I run past this building almost every week on my Saturday morning run.  It is right on the Crystal Bridges hill near Compton Gardens.  I had no idea it was a "thing".  It's a skyspace. 

What is a skyspace? I'm so glad you asked: 

So basically, it's a circular building with an open hole cut out of the roof/ceiling to look at, analyze, meditate, observe, and appreciate a framed piece of sky/space. It truly is relaxing.
We watched a single cloud float across the circle, a few birds fly by. A jet left a stream, and then the stream dissolved into blue.

The extra cool thing about this skyspace is that an artist made it an art experience by adding a series of colored lights in the building during the 20 minutes before and after sunset, so as the sky changes color, the light in the room/on the ceiling also changes color and you get a bit of a show watching the contrast between the sky and the color in the room.  It's a treat for the eyes and relaxing for the spirit.  The room has phenomenal acoustics, so your ears are also stimulated in an amazing sort of way. The floor in the center of the room is a large circle of black sand.  I couldn't resist tracing our initials in the sand and adding ourselves to the others there.
Anyway, if you haven't been to the skyspace, check it out at sunset sometime. The coolest part is that as the colors change more rapidly toward the end of the sequence, the room goes black inbetween them, for a second, and in that instant the black hole of sky would always suddenly look white against the blackness of the room.  I didn't take a photo of it, but it was a trip.

 We had Soren with us and he kicked back in the stroller and just stared at the sky the whole evening.  He loved the way our voices sounded in the room and laughed when we talked to him. It wasn't until just before we left that he was brave enough to make his own noises, and the echo tickled him.  I stood in the middle of the space with him for a minute and let him experience hearing the sound of his own voice being projected back to him. Aaron loved the contrast of the cold cold walls to lean against vs the heated stone benches we were sitting on. It was a feast for the senses.