The costume display - fabulous clothing here!
Frank Lloyd Wright room.
More beautiful artwork from Degas and Cezanne.
Wednesday, 9 July 2014
Tuesday 8th July - Museum day and more
Today we did our best to see as much of two museums as we could - The Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Natural History Museum (think "Night at the Museum"). Our strategy was to take the kids to the Met first so they had the incentive of going to the other museum to get them through. We loved the Met - such a huge and amazing museum. The girls were interested for quite a while - there was a special exhibition from the Costume Institute - Charles James dresses - divine! The boys loved the armoury exhibit and the Egyptian rooms. Damian and I loved the artwork again - such a feast for the eyes and we also loved the Frank Lloyd Wright room set up from a home which had been designed by him - from the architecture through to the furniture. Our big disappointment was the Tiffany Room which was closed for refurbishment - I'd been very keen to see that so will have to come back another day!!
Ready for the Met
We had a great (though very hot) walk through Central Park and found a cafe to eat at on the West side before taking off through the Natural history Museum. A big hit with all of us, especially the special "Spiders Alive" exhibit with massive tarantulas and other fabulous hairy things!! So much to explore here so we had to do the trip on high speed and take in as many highlights as we could.
On arriving home we were lucky enough to have a visit from Damian's cousin Cookie, from New Jersey. She's so much fun and has great stories to tell of Damian as a young traveller sleeping on her sofa for maybe a bit too long!! The kids were also amazed at her telling of her experience with 9-11 - she was in the building opposite and witnessed the first plane going into the building. Scary and awful and thankfully she's here to tell us the story.
Ready for the MetOn arriving home we were lucky enough to have a visit from Damian's cousin Cookie, from New Jersey. She's so much fun and has great stories to tell of Damian as a young traveller sleeping on her sofa for maybe a bit too long!! The kids were also amazed at her telling of her experience with 9-11 - she was in the building opposite and witnessed the first plane going into the building. Scary and awful and thankfully she's here to tell us the story.
Monday, 7 July 2014
Circle Line Cruise around Manhattan Island lower half
Statue of Liberty 
The Brooklyn Bridge 
The Manhattan Skyline
Monday 7th July - Top of the Rock, Circle line cruise, NYC with a local!!
What a wonderful day - we seem to be very spoilt with great weather and ticking off plenty of things from our wish list.
Today started with a trip to the Top of the Rock (viewing floors of the Rockerfeller Centre). A bit smoggy but such a beautiful day meant we could see right over Manhattan at all the sites. The kids were a bit astonished at the size of Central Park, especially when they realised they rode their bikes right around it!
We had an hour or 2 spare so Damian used the chance to do some suit shopping (as with everything, it's much cheaper here for great quality suits). Em and I found a Victoria Secret shop around the corner so we were happy too!!
We then navigated the subway to get to 83rd pier where we caught a Circle Line Cruise around the lower half of Manhattan - a fantastic way to see the city and the guide had amazing knowledge of the city and its sites, including their history. He was also able to point out celebrity homes/buildings, so there was something for everyone! We got up close to the Statue of Liberty, went under the Brooklyn Bridge (rather than over it), saw all of the buildings of interest like the Empire State and Chrysler buildings, areas where movies and TV shows were filmed, and areas affected by Hurricane Sandy about 20 months ago. It was well worth the trip - I'd thoroughly recommend it.
We then caught some subways uptown to Columbus Circle to meet a friend of Damian's and his sister Erica, Christine Burke. While Christine isn't originally from NYC, she's lived her for over 20 years (before and after spending 4 years in Sydney). Christine gave us a great insight into how she lives here - she took us to her favourite spots in Central Park (that we'd whizzed past on our bikes without seeing!), and we watched a bit of a baseball game there too. She also showed us her home in the upper west side, which was so lovely to see less touristy streets and more of the "real" New York. Christine's one bedroom apartment was lovely and spacious - a real find in NYC. She showed us what she called "the smallest kitchen in the world" and she'd be close to correct on this!! She then took us to the riverside park which extends all the way to the bottom of Manhattan Island and we had dinner at a great cafe on the waterfront, while watching the sun set! Perfect! On coming back the kids got their first sighting of fireflies - so fun to watch! Thanks Christine for a wonderful afternoon!!
Home again and time to collapse - more and more walking today but the kids are coping well and we're thoroughly enjoying ourselves!!
Top of the Rock
Today started with a trip to the Top of the Rock (viewing floors of the Rockerfeller Centre). A bit smoggy but such a beautiful day meant we could see right over Manhattan at all the sites. The kids were a bit astonished at the size of Central Park, especially when they realised they rode their bikes right around it!
We had an hour or 2 spare so Damian used the chance to do some suit shopping (as with everything, it's much cheaper here for great quality suits). Em and I found a Victoria Secret shop around the corner so we were happy too!!
We then navigated the subway to get to 83rd pier where we caught a Circle Line Cruise around the lower half of Manhattan - a fantastic way to see the city and the guide had amazing knowledge of the city and its sites, including their history. He was also able to point out celebrity homes/buildings, so there was something for everyone! We got up close to the Statue of Liberty, went under the Brooklyn Bridge (rather than over it), saw all of the buildings of interest like the Empire State and Chrysler buildings, areas where movies and TV shows were filmed, and areas affected by Hurricane Sandy about 20 months ago. It was well worth the trip - I'd thoroughly recommend it.
We then caught some subways uptown to Columbus Circle to meet a friend of Damian's and his sister Erica, Christine Burke. While Christine isn't originally from NYC, she's lived her for over 20 years (before and after spending 4 years in Sydney). Christine gave us a great insight into how she lives here - she took us to her favourite spots in Central Park (that we'd whizzed past on our bikes without seeing!), and we watched a bit of a baseball game there too. She also showed us her home in the upper west side, which was so lovely to see less touristy streets and more of the "real" New York. Christine's one bedroom apartment was lovely and spacious - a real find in NYC. She showed us what she called "the smallest kitchen in the world" and she'd be close to correct on this!! She then took us to the riverside park which extends all the way to the bottom of Manhattan Island and we had dinner at a great cafe on the waterfront, while watching the sun set! Perfect! On coming back the kids got their first sighting of fireflies - so fun to watch! Thanks Christine for a wonderful afternoon!!
Home again and time to collapse - more and more walking today but the kids are coping well and we're thoroughly enjoying ourselves!!
Top of the RockSunday, 6 July 2014
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