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Published: January 30th 2015
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Breakfast at Pret-a-manger for the second morning in a row but given it is almost directly across from where we are staying that is really no surprise. It snowed overnight so the was a light sprinkling of white in the gardens, parks and on the sides of the road but the roads and footpaths were relatively clear of snow. Was colder than previous days though!
First stop was the American History Museum to finish up what we started a couple of days ago. The Alexander Bell exhibition was open this time so we started there, before moving on to lighting and Thomas Edison. Heard the first recording from Bell saying 'hear my voice' as he tested his recording equipment and saw lots of different meters and circuits in the Edison exhibition too.
Then it was on to the transportation (buses and trains) exhibition. Focused mostly on invention of railways, tracks, cars, highways and so on. Had some old trains and cars on display too which were interesting.
From there it was on to the Natural History Museum. There were only a few exhibitions there we were keen to see, skipping the butterflies, gems and minerals and some others.
There was a somewhat disappointing dinosaur display, although we did learn how useless T-Rex's arms actually were - they couldn't even reach his mouth!
If we were disappointed by the two dinosaurs and some fossils which were the Dino expo we were even more disappointed by the Ancient Egypt display which was a tiny room with a couple of things on display, including a coffin, and some photos.
However, the mammal display was fairly impressive, with a vast array of stuffed animals, and well stuffed too. It included animals from all of the continents, so I got to experience African, South America, Antarctica and even Australia! We also took the time to visit an ocean exhibition although the highlight was probably some of the award winning photos that were on display. Most impressive of all of them was a huge turtle photo.
We also stopped by and looked at the Hope Diamond which was on display and said to be worth $350m. Not sure if that is USD or AUD but probably insignificant at that value anyway!
We left at about midday to grab some lunch and head briefly back to the hotel to do some
washing/drying. Had lunch at a little deli which was pretty empty when we entered and quickly became what looked like the place to be. The ordering process at many of these places is confusing. Order at one counter, pick up at another. Grab a drink. Pay at another counter with that person not actually even knowing what you ordered. Obviously it works for them though.
In the afternoon we headed to Newseum, a relatively new museum dedicated to journalism and news. I got to play at being a reporter, although for some reason or something weird happening with the non-green green screens my pinkish jumper almost appeared see through which was quite odd.
There was a 9-11 memorial which included front pages of newspapers as well as the melted antenna that was on top of one of the World Trade Centre buildings before the collapse. Amazing that they can find and identify something like that after such an incident but it was a huge piece of equipment. They also had reporters talking about what it was like to cover that event as it unfolded, from reporters in choppers to people on the ground at the time.
There was also a comprehensive display showing the history of News Corp including significant front pages from all times and a range of countries, an exhibition on freedom of speech, presidents and their dogs, reporting on the Vietnam War and Civil Rights. Definitely worth a visit. Also a highlight was the display of Pulitzer Prize winning photos from the 1940s to present day. Amazing how many of them were in the right place at right time, not withstanding some clear skill of course.
Just on closing time we left and walked back up to Chinatown for a relatively early dinner. Way too much food. And from there we went and saw a movie - American Sniper, which was very war-focused but good nonetheless, followed by a very chilly walk back to the hotel.
The next day was a later start, with another breakfast at Pret before a walk down to the grocery store for some train snacks and back to the hotel to repack everything spread across the room. From there it was the metro to Union Station where we grabbed a light lunch while waiting for the
1pm train.
Trip was uneventful and with free wifi gave me a chance to catch up with online news and emails (hi work peeps) as well as watch some tv on the iPad and have a brief nap. Into NYC at 4:30pm and transferred to the subway. Lots of stairs to carry bags up when we arrived at our intended destination.
I managed to carry my bag, with difficulty, up most of the flights of stairs until I gave up and Stuart helped me with the final two flights.
Checked in at the hotel, unpacked (room quite small, not a lot of space to move around in) and then headed out for a walk and dinner. Grabbed pizza slices on the way down to Times Square, where we then visited M&M World and a souvenir shop.
Back to the hotel where the room was ridiculously hot and we couldn't get the thermostat to work and had to call the repair dude up. All he did was turn it off and open the window but it managed to drop the room down from the 35 or so degrees it was.
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