With rain in the forecast, we decided that Friday would be our museum day. We had 4 museums on our agenda to see in New York City: The Guggenheim, The Metropolitan Museum of Art (The Met), The Modern Museum of Art (MOMA), and the Nation Museum of Natural History. These four museums were included with our City Pass, which we purchased for $89 each, and also included the Statue of Liberty/Ellis Island, and the Empire State Building Observatory. Totally worth it!
It was a little hard to get up as early as we wanted to Friday morning because it was still 3 hours earlier than our time zone, and we were still pretty tired from our red eye flight...so we got a little later start to the day than we wanted...but I was EXTREMELY excited when we finally made it to the Guggenheim! The Guggenheim Museum has been very first on my list ever since I was a senior in high school and checked out a book of the works at the Guggenheim from the library. I've wanted to go there since I was 18, and finally getting there felt like Disneyland used to feel like to me when I was a kid.
I found out pretty quickly from a security guard that photography was not allowed inside the art galleries, so that's sad since I really wanted to document this experience. But the building by itself is a work of art. An architectural masterpiece by Frank Lloyd Wright. The building is a giant spiral ramp with the art and galleries off of the ramp. It was amazing, inside and out. I enjoyed seeing the Picasso Matisse, Gauguin, Kandinsky, and all the great artists I learned about in art and humanities classes.
Inside the Guggenheim, looking out the window to the trees in Central Park.
After taking this panoramic picture of some of the building levels from the very top, I was told I better stop taking pictures again! Sorry! You can't see any of the art in any of my pictures!
Leaving the G with my sis.
After the Guggenheim we walked through the edge of Central Park on the way to The Met.
The trees were just starting to turn. The weather the entire time we were there was very warm...in the low 60's. New York City is a beautiful city, with a lot of green park space. The two pictures of the water on the right are the Central Park Reservoir The two bubble pictures on the left were the first time I saw someone "creative panhandling". I never saw anyone just asking for money in NYC. They were always doing a performance or a trick of some kind, and if you wanted to take a picture of it you should give them a dollar.
In Central Park, near the Metropolitan Museum of Art, there is this obelisk called Cleopatra's Needle. It was a gift to the City of New York from Egypt. We sat down and had a breastfeeding and diaper changing session, as the rain had gone away and the weather was very pleasant.
normalizing breastfeeding around NYC!
We walked past this children's park on the way to The Met, and wanted to take a picture of it to show our kids. This is how the children's parks all look in NYC. They are fenced in, and have signs that say no adults or teenagers allowed, unless accompanying a child.
The Met.
The BIGGEST museum I have ever been through. I can imagine the Louvre in France is about the same size, but I wouldn't know since I didn't actually go through the Louvre. I know! What a travesty that I was in France and didn't go to the Louvre! It would take DAYS to see everything in this museum. We really should have left more time to see it. It is A LOT more than just paintings. It is artifacts from all over the world! It was fascinating!!
Here we are, about to go in...with the Met buttons on our collars.
The inside of the Met.
Some of the most interesting things we saw in the Met (we were allowed to take non-flash photography in most of the galleries...all of the galleries except the Bernini sculptures):
A Tiffany stained glass window. They had several Tiffany windows, and I thought they were all stunning!
I loved the expression of this mama and baby!
We spent the most time in the Egypt exhibit. It was INCREDIBLE! These statues, buildings, artifacts, mummies, and panels were all brought from Egypt.
But in retrospect, we should have hurried along so we wouldn't run out of time before seeing China!
My sister and brother-in-law were a big help with Milo! And I think they loved it.
We quickly strolled through the European paintings...and saw lots of lovely ones. The left, on the bottom is Bruegel. I love this painting. He is painting commoners at a time when most paintings were commissioned to paint the elite. I love that. The pics on the top left and just to the right of the big painting are details from the big painting. The other two painting are two Rubens. Brent and I both really liked the one on the right, bottom. It's called the Glorification of the Eucharist. The top right is detail from the painting, in which Jesus is crushing a skeleton and a snake, representing death and sin. It was interesting looking through our pictures afterward. Brent and I both had a camera, and we ended up taking pictures of almost the exact same paintings. Hehe!
The Persian Gallery was perhaps the most interesting because I love the art and I really think it's a time and part of the world that gets skimmed over in History class. The top left statues remind me of the Neverending Story, no? Don't they look like they're about to shoot lasers out of their eyes? And the picture on the top right is cuneiform, one of the earliest known forms of writting.
I LOVED these lions! Favorite!
After spending all day at museums, it was very late, and we were very hungry. We powered through the whole day without eating any meals, just so we could see as much as possible. So we walked around and found a Persian restaurant, which was AHH...SO delicious!! We were trying all kind of foods that we have never tried before, and that was SO fun. The ultimate end of the day was the rose ice cream we ordered for dessert. OK! Seriously SO YUMMY! If you ever get the chance to eat rose ice cream, DO IT!
This is us on the bus, finally on the way home. We were SO tired, and my eyes were hurting me...I think I was starting to get conjunctivitis! Crap! I went home and squirted some breast milk from Milo's bottle in my eyes and went to sleep...and in the morning, ALL BETTER!
It seriously sounds weird, but it works! Just FYI.
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