Today, the three of us went with Nana and Granddad to see the Gates, which will be dismantled and chemically mulched this weekend. I was genuinely curious and determined to keep an open mind about the experience, despite my misgivings. Because let's face it: the true art of this installation is the bamboozling of millions of people into spending tens of millions of dollars, just so they can freeze their butts off while gawking at a bunch of giant orange staples.
We knew Robert would dig cruising through all the "tunnels" at top speed, so we brought the trike:
And though I spent most of the time keeping the boy from kneecapping tourists, I enjoyed what I saw. The Gates looked especially dramatic set against the crisp, blue sky and the gray/white winterscape. Pictures don't do the Gates justice, but here some more anyway. They are at least distinguished from the billions already on the Web, because these pictures have snow on the ground.
Also: Please note that my son's headgear is not in any way GateSwag. It is a Tonka "Worker Guy" helmet that came with the gi-normous truck his babysitter got him for Christmas. Let it be known that my son was wearing saffron long before saffron was cool.
