Lions and Elephants and Dinosaurs, oh my

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Today was another walking day, but most of it inside. Met up with Nancy at Columbus Circle then took the train to 81st street and the American Museum of Natural History. Since I like avoiding lines, we went in through the Rose Space Center entrance, it's usually not as crowded. It's an easy connection to the main museum, and to be most efficient in our time (and to avoid climbing stairs), we took an elevator to the top floor and worked our way down. The fourth floor of the is the skeleton floor, full of dinosaur bones, primitive mammals, vertebrates and advanced mammals. Somehow I always seem to do this floor backward, starting in what is supposed to be the last room, but I don't care, I enjoy all the big bones!

The rest of the floors have, instead of bones, stuffed specimens. These are very well presented, but in some ways, they are bit disturbing. There are both African and Asian elephants, African lions, all kinds of deers and caribou and bears. In the hall of ocean life, there is a Blue Whale hanging from the ceiling while around the walls there are various dioramas of fish, walruses and seals. We ended in the Hall of Planet Earth, which leads back to the Rose Center.

The museum allows photos (even flash), but while the exhibits are well lit, the rooms themselves on the lower floors are pretty dark, so a lot of my photos ended up quite blurry. The most difficult photos to get are of the African elephants and the Blue Whale. I don't know why the Hall where the Blue Whale hangs is so dark, it's almost impossible to get a good look at the whale and down-right impossible to get a good photo.

After leaving the Museum, we walked across Central Park via the 79th Street Transverse and then went to the Candle Cafe for lunch. I had a yummy salad and got a couple of cookies to take with. We walked along Lexington Ave to a Jamba Juice near 50th street, then ended our day running in the rain to catch the train home.

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Comments

[Haviva]

The benefits of living in New York
Dear Mindy, It is nice to be able to enjoy the benefits of living in New York! The museums in Cincinnati are nice . . . want to come check them out? Hope you continue to have fun! Haviva

[Pat]

Great photos!
Mindy, it sounds like you had a wonderful day. It's nice living vicariously through you with all your staycation activities. My granddaughter will love your photos. Can't wait to see what comes next. Pat