So, on Thursday, things didn’t go according to plan. The camera stayed in the hotel room during the day. We received email notice that our attempt to win ‘Shakespeare in the Park tickets through the lottery had failed. The Guggenheim was closed. (More about the Guggenheim in another post.) Central Park is much bigger than we realized. Our feet still hurt from the day before. And, yes, that would be a slight note of whining that you hear.
We took the Subway up the west side of Central Park intending to get off at the American Museum of Natural History. Well, we got off one stop early and walked north and arrived at the museum just as it was opening. We had a great morning: we saw the Giant Squid in mortal combat with the Whale, we saw the Heilbrunn Cosmic Pathway and we saw the Hayden Planetarium program. Well, we didn’t see all of the planetarium program, The planetarium was awfully dark, and the chairs were very soft and we didn’t get to bed until 2. We ate lunch there too, after we woke up.
After lunch we took the Subway to the south end of the park, across to the east side and up Eighth Ave., (2 transfers! and we discovered later that there’s a bus for each of the cross-park streets.) to the stop nearest the Guggenheim. The sign said, “Closed Thursdays” so we walked back south to the Metropolitan Museum of Art. We got lost in there – several times! We also received complementary tickets to The Cloisters – a collection of Medieval Art and Architecture located way at the north end of Manhattan. It’s embarrassing to admit, since we were so into using mass transit, but we took a taxi back to the hotel. There was time for another nap before The Social – finger food, beer and wine (sorry kids – how does left over pizza sound?)
We devoted the evening to Times Square and had a great time – even though I’m still not really sure if there is an actual place that is Times Square. I’d say the the New York Times Building. That’s on 40th street and 8th Avenue. Except for the absence of the Times building, 42nd Street and Broadway is a strong candidate, but it would be nice if there were something square there. The folks who really care say that its the intersection of 7th and Broadway (nope – not square). The photos of the evening would convince most folks like us (residents of Denver, near downtown) that the entire population of New York was in and around Times Square to spend the evening. In fact, we ran into friends from Denver. That happy interaction didn’t keep us up too late, we were in bed by midnight.
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