Tuesday: The Metropolitan Musuem of Art, part 1

Our friends were unable to join us today, so after a late start we headed off to see the Metropolitan Museum of Art. We walked across Central Park to get there after taking pictures again in front of the AMNH.The Met was incredible and massively huge. It would take weeks and weeks to appreciate it fully. We traveled through the Egypt exhibit where there were walls of hieroglyphs that had been transferred into the museum.

There were also massive sarcophagi everywhere! They were beautifully carved and a joy to behold. Dean was very excited to get to see the Temple of Dendur. It was amazing to behold. The entire temple had been placed indoors next to a reflecting pool. The American Wing was up next with its journey through American history through furniture and period pieces. One of the coolest sights was in the Tiffany room where there were beautiful examples of Tiffany lamps and vases as well as perfect jewelry. Beyond that there were famous artworks in the archives like Mary Cassatt, The Matterhorn, and so many others. At this point we wondered our way into the European Artwork section. Spanning from the Italian Reniassance to the 18th century, the collection was massive. We walked for almost an hour through the galleries and still only saw a small portion of the art. Our favorites were The Death of Socrates, The Man in the Red Turban, The Adoration of the Magi, works by Rembrandt, Goya, and David.We ate lunch and preceeded on to the 19th and 20th century art. (See part 2 to come soon)

Monday

Bright and early Monday morning we met our friends for a short trip to their bank and Madison Square Garden (one of Dean's must sees). It was dreadfully cold yesterday and we were all terribly sore from our last two days of walking all over New York. However, off we went to the American Museum of Natural History
The museum was AAAAMMMMAAZZZIINNGGG! For one it was huge, taking up two city blocks. Our must sees for this massive adventure were the Rose Space Center. Included with our city passes was the Cosmic Collisions show in the Planetarium. It was awesome, except for the 150 small school children who ohhed and ahhed and talked the entire time.
After walking from the beginning of time (on the spiral Big Bang Theory Walk) to the present day we continued through the museum to the Biodiversity room and then the Ocean Life exhibit. The massive blue whale replica hanging from the ceiling was incredible and was definitely my favorite part of the walk through. We then continued to the Human Origins exhibit. By this point our friends and myself were so tired of walking so we sent Dean off into the gem exhibit to take pictures for us.Finally we headed upstairs to see the dinosaurs. They were so cool. The bones were just massive. It is so incredible to imagine those structures with muscles and flesh on them. They were just that enormous.

For lunch we headed off down a block to eat once again at the Shake Shack on the Upper West Side. I tried the Vitamin Creamcicle Shake. It was awesome!
We were all exhausted by this point and decided to try once again to visit Belvadere Castle to look out of the observation deck, but unfortunately they are closed on Mondays. So a trip to Barnes and Noble was decided to be in order. We got on the subway and went all the way down to the WTC stop and visited the local B&N there. The WTC was not very exciting, mainly just a blue wall and lots of empty space. They are building a tribute center there, but it will not be completed for some time. Maybe the next time we visit we'll get to see more of "Ground Zero"

We soon headed back to our hotel for a little relaxation before going to see The Phantom of the Opera. The performance was awesome! Everything I thought it would be. If you have ever seen the movie, the stage performace is a great comparison. I enjoy both equally. The show ended at 11 and we were definitely ready to go get ready for Tuesday and bed.

Internet Woes and Sunday

So the reason we have been so sporadic at posting is that our hotel doesn't have free internet. They want $10 a day for it! How crazy is that! We've been searching for free internet and have finally decided that Starbucks is the best place for it.


But anyway the trip has been fantastic so far! Sunday we met our friends and went to breakfast at a great little corner bakery then caught the subway up to Central Park. We saw the Delacorte Theater, the Belvadere Castle, Strawberry Fields, and the beautiful Central Park Zoo. The Zoo was perfect. There were penguins and polar bears and sea lions, oh my. We had the privilege watching the penguins and the sea lions get fed and put on a show. There are some amazing pictures that I would love to share. They'll be on facebook soon. After Central Park we went to the Flatiron Building and ate lunch at the Shake Shake (claims the best burgers in New York) and it really was good. We then head back up town to catch The Lion King! The awe inspiring show was full of beautiful costumes and incredible singing and dancing. I really like the puppetry. Our friends who live here loved the show and I don't think the adventure will soon be forgotten.
After the show we walked down 5th Avenue for a ways seeing the Rockefeller Center, Radio City Music and the NBC Studios. Dinner was at Jubilee, a fancy little French restaurant with awesome food. I found out that I like artichokes. Had our friends not been there, Dean would have gotten Chicken and potatoes and apple pie and ice cream (instead he had rack of lamb and tried creme brulee). We then went back downtown to Chelsea to catch a movie. We watched Duplicity. It was good. Finally we made it back to the hotel room about midnight definitely ready for a good night's sleep.

Saturday!

Dean – Saturday – We started our first morning in New York by eating at the McDonalds on Times Square, which we felt bad for at first, but we needed a quick breakfast before we went to our first show. After breakfast we headed to the Gershwin Theater for “Wicked: Behind the Emerald Curtain.” I had never seen a Broadway show live before so I had only an inkling of an idea of what to expect, and the behind the scenes look at Wicked and Broadway plays in general gave me a good heads up before seeing my first one. A couple of the cast members gave us the story on how the permanent sets and travelling sets were constructed and integrated into the stage, how crazy things usually are until right up to performance time, and an idea of how much work it took to get a show on stage. When we finished at the theater we headed down the street looking for a good lunch and we happened upon Famiglia Pizzaria, “New York’s Favorite Pizza.” Katy and I had a calzone that was delicious and fairly cheap, and then we headed back to Gershwin Theater for the actual performance of Wicked, which completely blew me away. The show was incredibly well put together and the storyline was amazing! After the show we me up with a couple of old friends who know their way around the city somewhat, and they led us on a tour of sorts that took first too us to Chinatown, where we ate authentic Chinese food at the Nice Green Bo, not to be confused with the New Green Bo, the restaurants old name under old ownership. With our bellies full of noodles, chicken, and shrimp we headed on down to the Financial District, passing many famous buildings that we either knew by sight or gathered the importance from the signs around them. Battery Park was our last destination before dark, where we looked out over the harbor and saw the Statue of Liberty for the first time, which was really, really cool. Lastly, we took the subway on over to the Brooklyn Bridge and walked across, which was very fun, but did get us quite chilly. Katy was a little scared of the old-looking construction and of the height we were at, but all in all it was a cool way to see the harbor and the city. After all that we were very tired, even though it was only 9:00 pm and so we hiked/took the subway on back to the hotel for a shower and comfy beds.