Manhattan Vacation Day 4: A day at museums and another boat tour.
Yesterday was our day downtown, and today was our day at museums. First thing after breakfast, we headed to the Natural History Museum, where we'd never been before. But the subway ride there wasn't completely smooth. The C-line train was experiencing some problems that had even the locals confused. The first train that arrived waited until after opening its doors to announce that it wasn't taking passengers due to "technical difficulties," so a whole car of us got on just to get back off again. The next train was running, but for some reason, it was skipping several stops. Almost everyone in the car sat up straight and ran for the doors in unison when they made that announcement, which was kinda funny. I saw one man kick his leg inside the door to keep it from closing on the people trying to get off behind him, and another guy even asked me for directions, so you know it was bad!
Once we made it to the museum, there was another loooong line outside, but it moved pretty quickly. I did get annoyed with one very short-tempered security guard on the front steps who kept yelling at the Spanish-speaking family in front of us to speak English. (They didn't understand that they had to fold up their stroller.) The dad kept yelling no back at him.
The museum was too big to see all of it, but what we did see was pretty cool. I really liked the dodo skeleton, the mammal dioramas (there was a sprawled-out mountain lion that reminded me of my fat cat), and the great blue whale and giant squid in the hall of marine life. The new politically correct updates to the Old New York diorama were interesting. I also took some cheesy selfies with the Theodore Roosevelt statue on the lower level. Although I was disappointed that the rocks/gemstones section didn't include a rock with the K-Pg signature. I'd just assumed that it would, but I guess it doesn't.
After the Natural History Museum, we visited MoMA (Museum of Modern Art), another place where we'd never been. A lot of famous paintings were there, including Starry Night, The Persistence of Memory, Andy Warhol's Soup Cans, and some really big panels of Monet's Water Lillies. I also came to appreciate any work with a bench in front of it, and I spent some time sitting down watching the "Are you happy?" '60s short film featuring placards of Bob Hope and Chairman Mao (see here). Jimmy the Storyteller was fun, too.
Sara and my feet were both really sore by the time we left MoMA. (I'm glad we did the High Line and ghost tour on our first day here, because there's no way we could do it today.) So we sat by the beautiful fountain in their courtyard for a while, then dragged ourselves back to the subway to head back towards the westside. We found another cheap-ish pizza place, Claudio's Pizza on 10th Avenue, for some soda and a slice, and then we arrived back at Pier 83 for another boat tour.
This one was a sunset boat tour into the harbor (not around the entire island); the weather was better, and it was a lot more crowded. We got there early enough to get seats on top, and I'm glad we did. There were stunning views every minute in every direction, especially as the sun went down and all the buildings lit up. Although our tour guide on this one was much more annoying. She kinda rambled, and she also tried to sing ("New York, New York," which I didn't know and isn't a great sing-along song, anyway).
We were so tired when the tour was over, but our feet felt much better, and on the walk back to our hotel, I found a finally found a mailbox to mail postcards we bought earlier for Mom and Athena's kids. I'd been looking out for one for a while, but they are hard to find nowadays, even in New York City!
Distance walked today: 6.1 miles.
Once we made it to the museum, there was another loooong line outside, but it moved pretty quickly. I did get annoyed with one very short-tempered security guard on the front steps who kept yelling at the Spanish-speaking family in front of us to speak English. (They didn't understand that they had to fold up their stroller.) The dad kept yelling no back at him.
The museum was too big to see all of it, but what we did see was pretty cool. I really liked the dodo skeleton, the mammal dioramas (there was a sprawled-out mountain lion that reminded me of my fat cat), and the great blue whale and giant squid in the hall of marine life. The new politically correct updates to the Old New York diorama were interesting. I also took some cheesy selfies with the Theodore Roosevelt statue on the lower level. Although I was disappointed that the rocks/gemstones section didn't include a rock with the K-Pg signature. I'd just assumed that it would, but I guess it doesn't.
After the Natural History Museum, we visited MoMA (Museum of Modern Art), another place where we'd never been. A lot of famous paintings were there, including Starry Night, The Persistence of Memory, Andy Warhol's Soup Cans, and some really big panels of Monet's Water Lillies. I also came to appreciate any work with a bench in front of it, and I spent some time sitting down watching the "Are you happy?" '60s short film featuring placards of Bob Hope and Chairman Mao (see here). Jimmy the Storyteller was fun, too.
Sara and my feet were both really sore by the time we left MoMA. (I'm glad we did the High Line and ghost tour on our first day here, because there's no way we could do it today.) So we sat by the beautiful fountain in their courtyard for a while, then dragged ourselves back to the subway to head back towards the westside. We found another cheap-ish pizza place, Claudio's Pizza on 10th Avenue, for some soda and a slice, and then we arrived back at Pier 83 for another boat tour.
This one was a sunset boat tour into the harbor (not around the entire island); the weather was better, and it was a lot more crowded. We got there early enough to get seats on top, and I'm glad we did. There were stunning views every minute in every direction, especially as the sun went down and all the buildings lit up. Although our tour guide on this one was much more annoying. She kinda rambled, and she also tried to sing ("New York, New York," which I didn't know and isn't a great sing-along song, anyway).
We were so tired when the tour was over, but our feet felt much better, and on the walk back to our hotel, I found a finally found a mailbox to mail postcards we bought earlier for Mom and Athena's kids. I'd been looking out for one for a while, but they are hard to find nowadays, even in New York City!
Distance walked today: 6.1 miles.