2010 Trip: New York Day 2
18th June 2010
I tried to introduce a savory element to breakfast this morning with the addition of some Vegemite has had procured in London, but it was still not very satisfying - I think I will have to avoid it from now on for my own health.
I headed into town and caught the 4 line north to 110th st, at the top end of Central Park. I wandered through the park for a couple of hours (this place is huge!), stopping occasionally to read my book. The park, despite its location (or maybe because of it), has the best bird watching of anywhere in the Tri-State area (read: for a large distance around). There are apparently over 200 species that inhabit the park, though I was only about to spot about ten.
The park is divided into water features (lakes, streams, ponds), forest, grassland, hills, rock features, roads (runners/cyclists/maintained vehicles only), sports grounds, the Met (Metropolitian Museum of Art), a few restaurants, and some other random features. After a few hours, I was only half way down, having wandered around looping paths and followed squirrels with my camera.
I found some lunch at classic American diner in the Upper West Side, a few blocks from the park, with plush leather benches and chrome tables. I had a vege-burger and sweet potato fries, with black cherry cola. It was actually quite good, though the burger kept falling apart.
From here I made my way to the American Natural History Museum. I was drawn to this classic institution particularly for its planetarium, which while the show was narrated by Whoopi Goldberg, was not that amazing - more designed for school kids. Some of the other exhibits in this huge museum proved a better find - dioramas of different natural environments, changes in the seasons, soil types, and farming methods were actually really interesting and informative (though, what is it with Americans and dioramas?).
They also had a fairly impressive dinosaur exhibit and exhibit of asteroids (featuring the largest in the world in a museum - a 31 tonne iron behemoth). But, what most struck me was the geological exhibits (Jen, did you visit here? Was it part of your inspiration?). Easily the best exhibit of minerals and stone formation I have seen anywhere with absolutely every thing one can imagine and many things one can’t - covering emitted spectrum, luminescence, radioactivity, hardness, ductility, industrial uses. The specimens were beautiful - massive walls of crystals in every shade imaginable.
While the science was intended, in most cases, to be understood by school children, they didn’t pander to the majority of Americans who couldn’t tell you what a fossil was, the gallery on evolution even had a little section succinctly explaining the difference between science and religion - though I was a little sceptical of one scientist who claimed to have ratified his belief in science with a creator, without any proof.
From here I wandered further through Central Park then down through the skyscraper clad Midtown, through the advertising and show central that is Times Square, taking photos of the sunset down each street, walking past Madison Square Gardens and other landmarks, watching baseball on the big screen at Union Square Park, and finally returning to Union Square at some late hour of the night and home to bed.
It was awesome to catch sight of the illuminated skyscrapers brightening the city around them, taxis jamming the traffic, and ambulances blazing red and white through the night. I walked over 150 blocks today - it seems to be the easiest unit of measurement here.