The Fashion World of Jean Paul Gaultier at the Brooklyn Museum:  playful, poetic, and transformative, Gaultier’s superbly crafted and detailed garments are inspired by the beauty and diversity of global cultures.  The leopard on this gown is not an animal skin, it is bead work!  

It is one of 140 stunning ensembles -- from Gaultier's emergence as a designer in the 1970s to his most recent collections.  Many are displayed on custom mannequins with interactive faces created by high-definition audiovisual projections.  

Critics praise the the exhibition because it used technology to the viewer's advantage: it wasn't just an add-on; it actually conveyed meaning and provided context.

Accessories, sketches, stage costumes, excerpts from films, and documentation of runway shows, concerts, and dance performances, as well as photographs by fashion photographers and contemporary artists who stepped into Gaultier’s world, explore how his avant-garde designs challenge societal, gender, and aesthetic codes in unexpected ways.

The group had such a good time at Juliette Restaurant in Williamsburg that they lingered for almost four hours in the comfortable glass ceilinged "Winter Garden" -- just as they would have at a Paris cafe.

Marge Coyne poses with Christina Mantz.  Marge, who has been with Christina's Daytrips longer than anyone else, is a great sport.  Marge always has a good time and her enthusiasm is contagious.

Bob Mantz poses with a life-size bronze of Thomas Jefferson.  It looks like they would have had a lot to talk about over a glass of port.

The Blue Ridge Mountains from Monticello.  This was the final historic house on our Historic Holiday trip.