Saturday, March 19, 2011

New York Wrap-Up - Days IV & V

We spent most of Monday at the Museum of Natural History (that place in Night at the Museum). The boys were so psyched to see Teddy Roosevelt on his horse and all the regulars. Unfortunately, they were doing renovations to the Roosevelt Rotunda, so, no Teddy, no Rexie and no cute night guard. We had booked in advance four different shows. We went to the Hayden Planetarium first and saw "Star Journal". It was cool. Second, we had tickets to "Butterflies". This is a special room/atrium where there are hundreds of butterflies. We got to walk through and see them up close. Ok, here is my disclaimer: I was tired of picture-taking by this point in the trip, so after the butterflies, I kinda put te camera away. For now, though, check out these butterflies!
I chatted with an elderly (I'm guessing 80ish) attendant. She was sweet. She said this exhibit had been the greatest thing she'd seen. I guess they bring in bus loads of city kids who have never seen a butterfly - ever. She said a few years ago, the city cleaned up all the vacant lots, removing all the weeds and grass. Since then the butterflies are rarely seen in the city. She said most of the kids who see these are astounded.
One butterfly landed on Martin's back and piggy-backed him nearly the whole time we were there.
I'm now committed to planting more butterfly friendly bushes in my garden at home. Updates next week.
This is my favorite one - the one with the pink in its wing. Amazing.
Sorry. Pictures inside the exhibit halls just didn't come out great. After "Butterflies", we had lunch near Central Park at Lenny's. Came back after lunch and enjoy the IMAX presentation of "Sea Rex". Lastly, we saw the exhibit of "Brain". Very cool.
We had time in the afternoon to go back near Battery Park. We wanted to see Ground Zero and we did. Martin wanted to see the New York Stock Exchange and he did. Henry wanted to eat at his favorite restaurant for dinner - PAX, but he didn't. It was closed! We found a similar restaurant and dodged that bullet. Took the subway back to the hotel for the night.
On our last day, we took the subway to China Town. I got my purse and watch (tradition), then we ate in Little Italy at Lombardi's. Very yummy pizza. Look closely and you can see Hayden holding up his souvenir - The Statue of Liberty key chain. That made his trip. I wanted to visit Soho and shop at my favorite quilt shop - Purl Patchwork, but we ran out of time. We went back to Times Square and let the boys have one last visit to ToysRus. We headed to Laguardia and got dinner at Five Guys Hamburgers where the potatoes came from the Randy Hughs farm in Rexburg, if anyone cares. Caught our flight and arrived home around 9:30pm. What a trip!
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