Tomorrow morning I board the train for Pittsburgh. If it’s not as bad as the last time I rode Amtrak 2-1/2 years ago, I might even do it again.

I wouldn’t want you to think I spent five days in New York without going to an art exhibit, my entertainment of choice. On Sunday, before I went to New Jersey for the seder, Renee and I went to the Asia Society where we saw wonderful Japanese prints. Yesterday we went to the Met and saw the Courbet. He was the penultimate avant garde artist of his time, but it’s a little hard to think of him that way. Everything has been so much more avant in recent years, unless you understand what came before, he seems a little dull. I really loved his self portraits, especially the one on the show poster. Maybe I’ll do some of my own: Fat Old Artist with piano, or Fat Old Artist with White Dog. (I don’t know any black ones.)

Today we went to Brooklyn, first to the botanic garden to see the cherry blossoms, magnolias and the wonderful Japanese garden. It was a perfect day, warm, sunny with a great breeze. Renee is a great companion in a garden; she knows so much about plants.

The Brooklyn Museum is next to the garden and was our next stop. The featured exhibit was by Murakami, a contemporary Japanese artist, but the exhibit I liked best was more Japanese prints. I think I can never see enough of them. This exhibit had prints I’ve never seen before–a great treat.

I won’t get home until late tomorrow; the train crawls–for 10-1/2 hours. (It’s only 7 hours driving.) I’ll try to post pictures on Friday.