Good side.
Oct. 30th, 2011 09:09 pmIn retrospect, leaving New York City this weekend was a pretty good idea. It didn't start out too well - getting lost for nearly an hour because of poorly worded directions plus a hotel shower with poor water pressure had me thinking I made a mistake and should've stayed behind. Sometimes it's nice to be wrong.
I think the reason we had the Smithsonian Museum of American Art on our itenerary was The Great American Hall of Wonders, the best parts of which were the rooms devoted to the gun and biology. Original Audobon sketches are always lovely, and I've always been fond of snipers. We walked around the modern art section for a while, then the Presidents' portraits, then lunch. My mother and grandmother went back to the hotel since it was raining, so my brothers and I had a chance to wander. We didn't get far. At first we thought we'd walk the two miles back, then I pressed them into visiting the National Aquarium. Which isn't all that great as aqaurium go, really - it's well-stocked but very small - but to its credit, had a juvenile albino American Alligator and a Giant Pacific Octopus, plus a good handful of sharks and assorted amphibians. It was also a decent place to get out of the rain for a while, and when we got back into it, it'd turned into snow.
Dinner was with a bunch of relatives I didn't know and a few I did, and I got to play with my cousin's four-year-old daughter for a while. Some of that was just talking to her, and some of it was hoisting her over my head or giving her an airplane ride by holding her hands and spinning her around off the ground. Her parents were appreciative of me and my brothers giving them a little reprive, too.
Coming back was a lot faster, since we knew exactly where we were going and how to get there, and I got back early enough to visit the gym and do my laundry. And I missed a huge snowstorm that left the city in a near-panic - but there'll be more coming, and this gives me just enough time to get a new pair of good winter boots before the next one hits.
And it was really nice to get out of the city for a while.
I think the reason we had the Smithsonian Museum of American Art on our itenerary was The Great American Hall of Wonders, the best parts of which were the rooms devoted to the gun and biology. Original Audobon sketches are always lovely, and I've always been fond of snipers. We walked around the modern art section for a while, then the Presidents' portraits, then lunch. My mother and grandmother went back to the hotel since it was raining, so my brothers and I had a chance to wander. We didn't get far. At first we thought we'd walk the two miles back, then I pressed them into visiting the National Aquarium. Which isn't all that great as aqaurium go, really - it's well-stocked but very small - but to its credit, had a juvenile albino American Alligator and a Giant Pacific Octopus, plus a good handful of sharks and assorted amphibians. It was also a decent place to get out of the rain for a while, and when we got back into it, it'd turned into snow.
Dinner was with a bunch of relatives I didn't know and a few I did, and I got to play with my cousin's four-year-old daughter for a while. Some of that was just talking to her, and some of it was hoisting her over my head or giving her an airplane ride by holding her hands and spinning her around off the ground. Her parents were appreciative of me and my brothers giving them a little reprive, too.
Coming back was a lot faster, since we knew exactly where we were going and how to get there, and I got back early enough to visit the gym and do my laundry. And I missed a huge snowstorm that left the city in a near-panic - but there'll be more coming, and this gives me just enough time to get a new pair of good winter boots before the next one hits.
And it was really nice to get out of the city for a while.
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