Exploring McAllen

On Friday my husband took a day off, a well earned day after traveling around and working weekends, and we decided to do something out of town. But what? Visiting a park again? Maybe for a very short while, it was too warm and humid, we would surely end up as a feast for the mosquitoes. Shopping? My husband is not really the I-love-shopping-with-my-wife type - and I rather go to a home improvement store or garden center before I do anythig else related to shopping. Maybe a museum, we hadn't been in a while ... and so I started searching for one. The IMAS, the International Museum of Art and Science sounded perfect, being married to a physicist, so we hopped into the car and were on our way to McAllen.

Our first stop was at Breadsmith. Everytime we come to McA. we have to stop there. Their bread is so good (and being German makes me being very finicky about it, a crust and no sweet taste is a must). If I find something I like, I buy in bulk, cut it in half and put it in the freezer. Their Russian Rye or Spinach Feta bread is delicious in my opinion.

Next we headed to the IMAS.

in front of the museum

 

We passed the geological collection and strolled through the kids corner (did I mention it is family oriented?) before we walked outside to the next building.

There I lost my husband. For a little while. Outside is the "RioScape", an interactive science playground, where students learn about water, energy, sound waves and more.
 Guess where my husband went :) Yep, you guessed right.

The next building was a collection of Bauhaus Art, Lithography by Fantin-Latour and this:

An exhibit called  "Fast forward" described as "optimistic, futuristic, pop extravaganza" I certainly hadn't expect to see something like that.

Blast off, 2011 Oil paint on board

it changes colors

this one made us think about doctors ...

It was cool, no question about it. And how come we hadn't heard about him while living in Florida?





The next room was also interesting but the complete opposite. Stained window art.

Our next stop was for a coffee. I wasn't prepared to see this

 A reminder how lucky we were in the lower valley, no hail storm had visited us.

 Fueled up with coffee we drove to the World Birding Center for a walk. Well, at least we tried ....

  Not sure the sign is meant to be there .... right now ...

We hopped back into the car and drove to Quinta Matzalan, but the mosquito situation there was even worse. I felt like they had just waited for me to come by. 

McAllen always is about three degrees warmer and more humid than Brownsville, a perfect spot for those blood sucking pests, and I am glad we live in the lower valley. It really makes a difference. Not a big one, but one mosquito less is one mosquito less.

After a sightseeing tour by car through the city for the rest of the afternoon, we decided to call it a day and have an early dinner at Schneider's German Restaurant and Beer garden before we headed back home. 

I am looking forward to exploring more of McA.