Friday, August 24, 2007

Squid on Feet -- Part 1

Thus starts a two day journey with the Squid Family as they turn tourist in their own city and walk miles and miles in search of blog fodder amusement.

Wednesday dawned gray and rainy and our Squid needed something to do. The American Museum of Natural History was suggested and all agreed that this would be a wonderful way to get out of the apartment.

Sneakers were donned and our Squid set out by subway for their favorite museum.On the way in we saw these lovely lions.And you thought only the Library had lions.

On, into the museum we went in search of lions and tigers and bears squid and turtles and whales, oh my!(The Whale is just too big to get into the frame!)This is my favorite diorama. Giant Squid battling Sperm Whale. When you go up to it in the museum, it is totally dark and you have to get right up to the rail to be able to see anything. I was amazed that this picture came out so well. You can actually see it better here then in person.

After visiting our aquatic friends, as well as frogs, mythical creatures and cavemen, we walked home. Yes, walked. From 77th Street to 27th Street. (That's roughly 2.5 miles for you non-New Yorkers.)

As you walk south on Central Park West, you see some lovely old buildings, many of which have been cleaned and or repaired. This was the first time that I noticed the cupola on the Second Church of Christ Scientist.Our theory is that it was just cleaned an was probably behind scaffolding for a while and that is why we never noticed it before. Yup, that's our story and we're sticking with it.

Continuing downtown we come to this brand new building which, amazingly, looks like it belongs! Truly, it blends with the other buildings along the avenue and is a nice, solid looking building.


These, however, show the very modern side of New York. In the foreground is one of the towers of the new Time Warner Center, a bastion of luxury shopping in the area. Behind it and to the left, slightly, is the Hearst Building. At least the modern portion which rises above a lovely, preserved lower section.
It is from the same corner that you can see this lovely statue group at the corner of Central Park,And the ever vigilant back of Christopher Columbus, ever watchful as he observes the traffic heading south on Broadway from the circle that bears his name.

And thus ends our photo journey as the Squid family then wandered into CompUsa to peruse new laptops and then continued south to procure footwear for the Squidlings.

4 comments:

Sarah said...

How great to be able to walk to the Natural History Museum! I love that place and enjoyed the "Night at the Museum" movie too ;-)

Anonymous said...

The museum was a favorite stop for my kids: dinosaurs, land and ocean creatures, planetarium...
There's always something interesting on your city walks.

Mary said...

I'm homesick here in Ohio for the weekend. Thanks for the pictures from my neighborhood!

Penny said...

:) what fun! it's been a bit since we were last there so we should go...