Natural History Museum and Central Park

Yesterday's walk into Little Italy

Outside on the patio of the restaurant before the downpour drove us indoors

Today we slept in, but once we got rolling we made our way to the Natural History Museum.  We went into Central Park in the morning, waiting for the arrival of Mariela's sister and nephew.  We went to a small lake where people were rowing around in small rowboats, it was a picturesque scene.  Lucia, true to form, caught several large turtles that were sunning on the rocks.  It was already fairly warm in the morning, I did not envy the people rowing the boats.  We were all sweating just from walking around.  We did see a young man propose to his fiance on a nice bridge.  New York can be a romantic place.

Once inside the museum we spend about 4 hours looking at the displays of dinosaurs, mammals, reptiles and gift stores.  The place is much too large to visit in one day, and the crowds can be exhausting.  They have several floors of displays and thousands of specimens.  The gift store was three stories tall filled with fascinating displays, toys, charts, books, posters, stones, works of art and apparel.  My personal favorite was the display on early mammals and the short film explaining their evolution.  The skin impression fossils of certain dinosaurs was pretty good as well.  They just have some outstanding specimens.  Gallery after gallery of impressive skeletons of creatures long gone.

After the museum we sat on the steps and contemplated the rest of the afternoon.  Mariela's sister chatted with a young, handsome blue-eyed man from Naples, the family next to us discussed their day in French and pedi-cab drivers called out in their New York accents, looking for business.  We met Chileans and Italians on the subway, many other Europeans and people from all over the U.S.  It really is an international city.  We decided to take the train to Columbus Circle on 59th Street, and Adriana lead us to a Whole Foods in a very nice air conditioned mall.  We bought food and walked across the street into Central Park to picnic.  The weather was pleasant, and the giant children's area was a great place to eat and for the kids to play.  The rest of our party joined us, and we all had a nice rest.

I'm writing this at 10:30 at night.  Lily and I returned to the hotel room early.  She was tired, and I had to work.  The group carried on to FAO Schwartz and they sent a text saying they went to Times Square.  I'm surprised they're out so late, but it's warm and there are many things to do at night in NYC.  Tomorrow we are thinking about the Empire State Building in the a.m., then heading to lower Manhattan for the rest of the day to see the Brooklyn Bridge and the WTC site.  Dinner in Little Italy is on everyone's minds again, and the entire group agreed that we will be eating there again!