Just a tiny bite of the Big Apple

New York City is an old Grande Dame of a lady that can't quite keep up with her upkeep.
The first thing that Cameron and I had to face on our second trip (just two nights this time) to New York City was this extremely long, broken-down escalator. We just finished climbing up and thought it very picture worthy. We arrived Friday evening and had just enough time to check in, change and take the subway to here:

The cast was great, most making their Broadway debut. Tony was marvelous and Maria was lovely. The whole cast was full of energy and fun. My only complaint: they substituted a lot of the songs' regular lyrics with Spanish a LOT.

I had my first cannoli after the show.

These are some sites on the way back to our hotel. St. Patrick's Cathedral at night.Saturday morning we dropped by Grand Central Station. HUGE place!
We went to the official (the original, right?) New York City Library. It was mostly covered up by renovations, but at least the lions were on display. It was awesome inside and I love how they grouped their poetry section. I even helped out by re-shelving a misplaced collection of Auden poems. Yes, I am a serious library nerd.
Warning: if you take pictures inside TURN OFF THE FLASH!!! A fellow tourist snapped a photo with a flash and two guards from different areas of the same level converged on the poor soul peppering them with angry "No flash! No flash!" calls.

We hung out at Bryant Park while we waited for the library to open. Happy Anniversary to us!This is William Cullen Bryant for whom the park is named. He was an American romantic poet, journalist, and long-time editor of the New York Evening Post.

After switching hotels to the, ahem, Waldorf-Astoria (I can now be thankful that Cam was a frequent traveller) for our second night we went to the American Natural History Museum and Rose Center for Earth and Space. Cam soaked up this place like I did with the Met last year. He didn't want to leave. We watched an IMAX with images from the Hubble and saw the regular planetarium show. Very interesting.

Check out this bad boy meteorite.

I'm more of a history girl than space and the future type, so I was really happy with the dinosaur section. There were more types of skulls and skeletons than we'd ever seen before. The variety was amazing. Here's a T-Rex The parasaurolophus is a long time family favorite (mainly because we learned to pronounce it), but this was one of many amazing crested/horned dinos. I loved these.I missed the kids a lot here. There was so much that they would have loved.

Nothing beats eating on the streets of NYC.

Saturday night we headed over to the Lincoln Center for the Perfoming Arts to watch a Met opera out of doors. Then Cam said "There's Moroni!" He saw the reflection of the temple in a window before we realized the Manhattan Temple was right there. I'm glad we at least got to walk by.

A view of the screen we watched Tosca on. The Metropolitain Opera House is just behind it.

Here are a few images of the amazing soprano that played Floria Tosca.

Both of us were so moved by the performances. Even though we hadn't been familiar with the music, it was our favorite experience for this trip.My trip to New York wouldn't be complete without another visit to the Metropolitian Museum of Art. Like Claudia from From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler I could really live here.

The more I see of Van Gogh, the more I love him. Look at how thick that paint is!Seurat There was an odd creation on the roof called The Big Bambú. We weren't too interested, but look at the view! A sea of Central Park with the sky-scraping mountains behind. Gorgeous medieval limestone sculpture.

Our kids were fascinated by this box when we told them that it had an actual mummified falcon inside. (This was part of the expansive Egyptian section)

"Here comes the train again" Eurythmics style...sing with me!

We rather like taking the subway.

What a fancy place this was! There is a dress code after 6 PM. I felt like we had to sneak in quickly after our long day out in our casual wear so we wouldn't be kicked out! If you look carefully, you can see the Chrysler Building just above the word Astoria.

We headed back to Penn Station (and on to Newark Airport) right after this photo was taken, having just finished a huge Reuben sandwich at a great luncheonette. Yum! Now that was a bite!

Oh, I love New York!