Oceanside Day with Cindy!

It seems like forever since Cindy and I had a girl day. Oceanside, a convenient meetup spot, offered us diverse activities with which to fill our day.

Breakfast and travel talk about Paris was al fresco at Petite Madeline Bakery. We were even treated to a gentle sprinkle which was so welcomed.

Since we were heading to OMA's WPA exhibit, our next stop was at Oceanside's post office, a Works Progress Administration project. The WPA was responsible for building Oceanside’s first permanent Post Office in 1935.

This historic building also contains two projects commissioned by the Treasury Section of Fine Arts, which like the Federal Arts Project, provided murals and other art forms to decorate public buildings. The first commissioned project is the carved wooden eagle and grille over the front entrance which was done by sculptor and actor, Stuart Holmes.

The second is this beautiful 16' x 6' mural of the San Luis Rey Valley and its Mission, titled Air Mail by Elise Cavanna, an American film actress, stage comedian, dancer, and fine artist. For almost 90 years Air Mail has hung in the Post Office's lobby. It is estimated that there are only 900 to 1,000 of these original WPA postal masterpieces left. Every year murals are lost due to the closing or sale of post offices or outright negligence. My dream trip would be to travel the country finding all the Post Office Murals that remain, before they are gone forever.

I wanted to introduce Cindy to Oceanside's Museum of Art. I'm liking this local treasure more and more. We began our explore with Art for the People: WPA-Era Paintings from the Dijkstra Collection.

We were blown away by the realism in the artwork by Connie Jenkins in her exhibit Intertidal Paintings from the Channel Island.

Light, Color, and Desire by Janet Taylor Pickett is described as "pathbreaking work explores Blackness, identity, and history... Polemical, unique, politically and socially committed, the art included in Light, Color and Desire demonstrates Taylor Pickett’s arrival at a distinct narrative voice inspired by Johannes Vermeer, Henri Matisse, and Frida Kahlo."

Our final stop was at High-Pie, a dessertry delightfully located in the Top Gun House. I have blogged about this historic home and its cinematic significance several times. This was the first time we've timed it right to actually partake of its culinary treats.

Built in 1887, the cottage was originally known as the Graves House in honor of its original owner, a physician from Riverside. One of the oldest beach cottages in San Diego County, it boasts an unusual architectural style: Folk Victorian. What made the home truly famous happened almost 100 years later when in 1985, Paramount Pictures rented the house for two weeks and used it as the home of Charlotte 'Charlie' Blackwood, played by Kelly McGillis in the blockbuster movie Top Gun.