Yesterday, we visited the Museum of Natural History on the west side of Central Park. I immediately started dragging Leigh Ann around excitedly, staring up, saying things like "look at this!" "Did you know about the male Angler Fish?!" And So, I discovered that my enthusiasm for dinosaurs obviously has not faded over 27 years.
They had all of my childhood favorites - stegosaurus, t-rex, pterodactyls, raptors, pleisiosaurs, etc. There was a huge exhibit on gems and geology. A whole section of meteorites. The hall of biodiversity with tons of specimens of almost ever animal you can imagine, from worms to birds to crabs and turtles.
The museum had a section of the Mark Twain tree, which was cut down by two guys with axes (it took over 13 days.) It had been growing since the year 525 A.D. We had meant to go see the planetarium, but being that the ticket prices were a little steep and the next show didn't start for a while - we decided to leave it for another day and instead do something more outdoors. But I've included a shot of the outside, a gigantic indoor sphere, because, well, it's pretty impressive.
As Leigh Ann tells me, this whale is almost certainly not made of solid wood. But is perhaps made of something hollow and light.
So we hopped in a cab and headed to the corner of 60th and 2nd ave. This is where the Roosevelt Island Tramway boards to go to Roosevelt Island. I had once seen the tram on a foggy and rainy day, not knowing that NYC had a tramway I thought at first I may be imagining things. The red floating trolley just sort of appeared in the misty gray-ness from behind a building, silently floated above and across the street. And then it disappeared behind the buildings on the other side of the street. I had never seen it or heard of it before, and never saw it again. So I just sort of forgot about it until the other day.
In any case, it takes you from Manhattan, lifts you above the streets for a bit, then travels above the East River, parallel to the Queensborough Bridge and drops you silently on to Roosevelt Island.
The island is very quiet, and maybe as wide as a football field is long. We found out from a lady that we rode with that the island used to be a quarantine island for those with smallpox, to separate them from the healthy population on the mainland in Manhattan, Long Island, Queens, and Brooklyn. Adding to that bit of creepiness, there were the castle-like ruins of an old smallpox hospital buried in the trees and wilderness at the southern tip of the island.
The building was designed by James Renwick - the same architect that designed the famous St. Patrick's Cathedral, the NY Stock Exchange, and the Smithsonian. As she told us "There's usually a gate with barbed wire to keep people out. But sometimes they leave it open" Of course we went. The ruins were impressive, with some Roosevelt Island employees fishing and looking on as we walked up the gravel road leading to the site. It also gave us some one of a kind views of the Manhattan skyline.
When we came back we ate at this great pizza place called Patsy's, had some sparkling wine on the sidewalk (because we're high class like that...) And then we went shopping at Urban outfitters, well, I more kinda walked a little further up the street and picked up a map while Leigh Ann did, but all the same.
We went by a couple of bars in Greenwich Village and SoHo, some were too crowded, some were a little to dressed up for someone who's been trekking all day with a camera and shopping bags. But in the end we found a couple that were great.
Really the best one was in the back room of Cafe' Select. It's not advertised, in fact, you have to ask specifically to go back there - and when you do, you're pointed through the kitchen full of cooks donning all white to an unmarked door. On the other side is a speakeasy style bar with concrete and brick walls, old artifacts from the 1940's, a ton of Christmas lights, a water heater, a loft with handmade stairs suitable for a treehouse, an Asian bartender with blond hair from Sweden (?), and James Bond themed music. In short - Amazing.
Sagamore Hill's old brick car port.
