We left in the morning and got there around noon. Kris went to his work thing and Max and I hopped on the subway to head uptown to the American Museum of Natural History. Wow is that a BIG place. We shared an incredibly overpriced yucky lunch in the cafeteria ($17 for sandwich, drink, cookie) and then headed up to see what we could find. There was way more stuff there than we could ever see in a day.
We started with the North American mammals hall. Taxidermy heaven, let me tell you! It was cool though, Max liked looking at the animals.
Though of course you wouldn't know he's enjoying himself from his face. That's not the face I'd be making if I was standing in front of an insane moose fight, that's for sure.
This facial expression is slightly more appropriate, though not much. Man those bears were huge. That one standing up had to be twice my height.
Seems being stalked by bears and being swallowed by enormous crustaceans looks about the same.
The ocean stuff was really cool. I'm not sure how many of the animals were models vs taxidermy jobs, but they all looked cool. And there was an immense model of a blue whale hanging from the ceiling. I was impressed.
This picture is of a really tall wall where they had animals divided up by kingdom, species, phylum, etc. It was really neat. I could've looked at it forever, but of course with Max around we only look at things for a maximum of about 3 seconds before moving on.
Unless it's some computerized thing of course--then we stay there for hours. Boring.
I don't think I've ever seen anybody using those interactive computery things besides little kids. Do you think anybody's ever told the museum people that?
Mr Webb's dream:
After the ocean I took Max up to the top floor to see the dino bones. I was hoping I might get cell reception up there, since the place is way too immense to have any downstairs. It barely worked. It was a good thing it did though, because Kris got done early.
We explored some dinos. I think Max is still a little scared of them though. He wasn't that interested in looking very long.
And I don't blame him. I think they're pretty frightening myself sometimes.
Like that claw, YIKES.
I don't know how many peoples lovely posed pictures max spoiled by walking right in front of them as they pressed their shutters, but I know it's more than one, and I'm guessing not less than 10. Oh well. Do you really need a cheesy posed photo of yourself in front of EVERY single exhibit in the museum?
No way. We don't do cheesy posed photos around here. Never.
Luckily Kris finished up right about the time that I got tired and Max started running away from me around exhibits, giggling and dodging. Since I don't think that's fun we headed out back down to the subway.
On the way out we saw one of Rachel R.'s friends.
Ewwwww. He sends his love. I told him you didn't want to see him anytime soon.
Oh, I almost forgot to tell the best part. We took a bathroom break on the way out, and of course since my little boy is not the type to actually stay where I ask him to, he has to come in the stall with me. That's bad enough, but he's always messing around with the door when I'm in there. So of course, as I'm using the facilities the door swings wide open. There are tons of women and children coming in and out and everyone sees me. Even worse, he doesn't even close the door himself. I have to stand up and close it.
Awesome, right?
After I blocked that experience out of my mind very carefully we got back on the subway and went to meet Kris at Grimaldi's pizza, under the Brooklyn bridge. And boy was it good. We didn't even have to wait in line because it was 4:30 PM on thursday!
The crusts are thin, the cheese and tomato sauce is super fresh and the basil is whole. Mmmmm.
Can you see it steaming? Everybody should get a piece of this stuff. It changes your whole definition of the word pizza.
Anytime anybody wants to go we'll meet you there.
Then we got on the road and took the long drive home--oh, but not before Max decided he needed to poop and took up the Grimaldi's bathroom for about 20 minutes.
The joys of a five year old in the big city.....
9 comments:
Sounds like fun trip, except for the whole bathroom episode, sometimes I wonder why we dare go places when kids do things like that lol. The museum looks cool, I wish we had more places like that close to us. I guess we'll just have to come visit you :)
Those museum photos are great. What a cool museum.
i love that max looks like he's screaming looking at the school of fish from the ceiling, but bored by the moose fight. his idea of terror and mine are very different.
such a great adventure. i'm so glad you're treasuring these moments.
and that pizza!? oh my gosh. i think i should leave all my children behind and go with you to ny for a few days. just for the pizza.
and another thing: did you know that there are a billion 5 guys hamburger joints in utah now? i've counted at least 4. (that's close to a billion right?) best burger i've ever had. i went on your reccomendation from one of the last times you were in ny.
I was amazed at the moose fight. The horrible beauty of the work done on those animals' bodies was astonishing. I know every inch of those leg angles, the strain, where the leg will go next, because I see it every day - those animals looked as though they had been frozen in the middle of very real movement. I can't imagine the life that results in people who can do this thing.
I can, however, imagine having a kid expose my moment of relief to the whole dang world. Let's do the math: 4 x 18 years - that's 72 parenting years. Which is why life expectancy is so short these days. Add my own 57 and you get about 129 years of dealing. I'm really, really tired.
I am envious of the pizza. I want to go to New York and see Rosemary and the other good women I've gotten to know out there. And to play with you. And to have some pizza. Probably, eating pizza after walking all over a museum - and chasing Fraz - they should cancel each other out, right?
Lol Loved it.
Oh that pizza looks divine! Ya, I want some and as for my "friend", next time you see him give him a message for me. Squish him! I'm tired of him messing with my life. :)
Oh and P.S. Those electronic consoles.......you're right. I've never seen an adult use them but every time we go to the Bean museum my kids have to hit every button. I have a funny set of photos where Levi ran around making sure the lights on all of them were on and the second they'd turn off he'd make the rounds again turning on the screens. Who cares about all of the stuffed dead animals! There are lights to be turned on!
We bought a family pass when we were there 2 years ago. By the time you pay for 4 people, it's cheaper. It's an awesome place, isn't it. And WE LOVED Grimaldi's. We walked over the bridge and then all around Brooklyn to find it. Duh. Then back across the bridge to Brooklyn Banks (skateboarding area in Manhattan kinda under the bridge) and around Manhattan until we went home.
We went to a museum in Chicago and a lot of the displays looked the same. No moose fight, but cool insects, every kind of bird, wolves, cougers. You brought back those memories:-)
As for the bathroom just wait until he decideds he will only go potty in the men's bathroom. It's agony as a mom sitting there calling in to them. And eyeballing every man that goes in the restroom.
The pizza looks yummy, I want to go to New York some time and try it out. The Chicago pizza was amasing but it was deep dish, not thin crust, we love thin crust pizza.
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