A day at the museum

View from Central Park looking west

John Lennon memorial

Butterfly enclosure, a side exhibition

Rose Centre for Space and Earth
 a modern addition to an old museum

Looking good

Biodiversity room

Theodore Roosevelt, born in New York,
 adventurer, explorer, president of the museum
 and 26th president of the United States, all round interesting guy 

View from MAD, Museum of Art and Design of Columbus Circle

The walk with Ricki (Part 1 of today) feels like more than enough excitement for one day, but lets push on and do the rest of the day now. What better way to follow up a nature walk than with a visit to the American Museum of Natural History.

But first I have to get there from the model boat lake. After yesterday’s experience of getting lost in Central Park I let google show me the way to the next target Strawberry Fields and the John Lennon memorial. As I approach the memorial it is packed, finally I get my turn for the obligatory photo and take some time to imagine the world as a better place.

Navigation is easy now, past the Dakota apartments where John Lennon lived and up the street to the museum. There are rows and rows of dinky little yellow school buses pulling up and gorging out screaming kids. After the obligatory bag check, ticketing and map procurement I start with the oldest rock in the collection as it is from Australia. Why is this not on the highlights tour and I am the only one interested in it?

Armed with trusty map, I find the butterfly exhibition to indulge in my obsession. Now onto the Planetarium, I have wanted to go to one of these for years, and ever time I get close something happens and I miss out. With about 500 school kids and 10 adult tourists we wait in the pre show area, the noise from the kids is deafening is this worth it? Should I escape now? Finally the doors open and we are ushered into the space age planetarium  aglobe suspended in the middle of the museum wing. The show starts with a bang and does not stop taking us on a journey through how the beginning of the universe was discovered by scientists. Amazing and so worth it.

Now to tackle the 4 floors and hundreds of exhibits I quickly give up on the museum’s iphone app, Explorer, it has little information and does not include locations of the exhibits. Back to printed map and my prepared highlight list. I wont take you though all the exhibits, some are old, some are new, a couple of my favourites are oceans, with a full sized model of a blue whale and biodiversity, that links all the elements of nature together. As I see different items, like Rapa Nui a 2 metre high stone statue from Easter Island I can’t stop thinking I am in the movie, Night at the Museum.

Time now to exit through the 3 floors of the museum gift shop and then I hop on the subway to Columbus Circle. A quick side trip to the MAD, the Museum of Art and Design, thanks for the tip Andrea. Back in my uptown apartment it’s time for a rest. There is a message from home, bed is like a haystack. I wonder what Rosco has done? Lets have some dinner and watch Breakfast at Tiffany’s for a glimpse of 1961 New York and my favourite girl, Audrey. That haunting music from the song Moon River gets me every time.