New York 2009, Part 4: Visited Places

This post is the 9th part of a 2-week series about my recent vacation in New York.

I’ve been mentioning that this series of posts is about my trip to New York, but so far, it would seem that I was barely in New York. Rest assured, in between our out-of-state travels, I did manage to roam the streets of Manhattan and visit a few places that I haven’t been to before.

American Museum of Natural History
Mica’s interest in this museum was more because of this movie than anything else. Nevertheless, we all thought it was a delightful place! It’s like the museum version of the tv series Planet Earth. I was even more amazed at Rinoa’s sustained curiosity. She paid close attention to the exhibits, even asking intelligent questions here and there, while Mica just breezed through most of the displays with barely a spark of interest.

Here’s a short video of Rinoa talking to her dad on the phone that night after our trip to the museum (and back at my brother’s house). She was so animated, talking about all the things she saw – especially the scary octopus and the giant squid – that I decided to video her so Troy can see later.

Guggenheim Museum
It was the perfect time to visit Guggenheim since it was the last day of the Frank Lloyd Wright exhibit. Like all buildings done by great architects that I’ve visited, simply seeing Guggenheim makes me nostalgic of college days when I had to learn such masterpieces. And then roaming the floors is like the culmination of those studies – and I realize (like I do in any great building) that no amount of reading can give you the same spatial experience of actually being there. On the down side, I doubt the museum will be as popular based on the merits of the collection alone. There were a couple of great works but as a whole, it left a lot to be desired – considering entrance is not free.

Coney Island
Ask Rinoa what her favorite experience is in New York this summer and she’ll answer without hesitation “the rides in Coney Island” – yep, that old, shabby amusement park by the bay. What can I say, kids will be kids. Just look at the big smiles on their faces.

Come back tomorrow as I wrap-up my trip to New York. If you want to read the previous posts in this series, here they are: