NYC 4 [museums]

This morning T and I met another friend of ours, S, at the Museum of Natural History . We were particularly interested in exploring the new wing that had recently been added. Not surprisingly for a Friday morning, the lines were out the door and down the street. But they were pretty efficient at checking us in.

Once we found the Gilder Center , we saw that it had two main exhibits, one about insects and the other about gemology. We spent time in both exhibits found them enjoyable and informative. Obviously the museum itself is huge and would require multiple visits to see everything. The other exhibits we saw on our way out were more old school, so I choice to concentrate on the Gilder Center was a good one.

We had lunch at Chalsty’s Cafe located in the Museum of the City of New York . It is actually a museum that I would have liked to visit if I had more time.

We then walked back across Central Park to the Metropolitan Museum of Art. When I had visited MOMA, it was mentioned under Van Gogh’s Irises painting that it was there under a temporary exchange with the Met for Starry Night. Since I knew I would be visited the Met, I was hoping to see Starry Night as that is quintessential Van Gogh. When we arrived at the Met, we were told that it was exhibited in the same room as another famous Van Gogh Painting, Cypresses . However, they were both in a special room that required registration for a virtual queue. The wait should have close to an hour and a half, so we sadly resigned ourselves to missing both pieces. That was frustrating and we both thought the website and museum should be been more clear and more flexible.

We wandered through the Egyptian section, then made our way home. Later we met another friend of T for dinner in the neighborhood.

This is my last night in both New York State and New York City. Tomorrow I drive North to Connecticut.