As I’ve been looking through my photos from this day, i keep thinking LET’S GET TO WALES ALREADY!
patience has never been one of my virtues. we did have a pretty interesting day in new york, even though we weren’t yet HIKING IN WALES.
we were busy there in NYC. Because it was monday, we didn’t have to worry about trying to get into any broadway shows since they were all dark, but we did want to go to a couple of museums.
first, kevin opened his birthday card from our neighbor bernice, because i knew she’d included money for dinner in NYC with it. bernice is always so sweet and generous!
we didn’t want to waste time going to breakfast, so instead we had some fruit and a couple of kevin’s handy and convenient squeezy oatmeal packs.
he brought them to take hiking, and the idea of them didn’t sound appealing to me, but they were pretty darn good. filling, quick, and full of nutrition. i give them a two thumbs up.
we took a pretty short walk to grand central station, and i had to stop and take kevin’s picture, and most people there seemed to be stopping to take pictures. because that’s what you do there. oh, and ride the subway or the train. we took the subway, because it was already starting to get a little hot outside and we didn’t want to walk.
the last time we were in new york we went to the guggenheim, but it was closed for renovation so this time we wanted to go inside. i hadn’t been there in years; i remember that they had many iconic art from the early 20th century, some impressionists, some good stuff. we took the elevator up to the top so we could walk down and look at the art.
kevin is taking a picture of this, pinocchio suicide.
and i’m sorry to say that’s about the most interesting piece of art we saw in the entire main section of the museum. the rest of it was very, very modern. modern, as in a table with some grass growing out of it, or a mannequin with a knife through it or something. yeah yeah yeah you say it’s art, but i just wasn’t interested.
it’s funny; i think kevin posted this link to this funny video, also – it’s a “tribute” to modern art that my aunt sandy wrote and we made for my parents’ 50th wedding anniversary. mom and dad met in the painting program at the art school at the university of illinois. we had so much fun making this video, and i think it captures the whole modern art thing perfectly.
there was a small room off to the side that housed just a few of the less-modern modern art, and there was a really small exhibit down in the basement about when frank lloyd wright designed the museum.
we were glad to get outta there, and headed across the street to central park.
we wanted to stop at a museum call the Neue Galerie; my dad had mentioned it the last time we went to new york, and we hadn’t gotten there then.
luckily it made up for the disappointment of the Guggenheim. here’s an interesting excerpt about the building it’s housed in, on the museum website:
The building housing Neue Galerie New York is located at 1048 Fifth Avenue, at 86th Street, in an area known as Museum Mile. The building was completed in 1914 by Carrère & Hastings, also architects of the New York Public Library. It has been designated a landmark by the New York Landmarks Commission and is generally considered to be one of the most distinguished buildings ever erected on Fifth Avenue. Commissioned by industrialist William Starr Miller, it was later occupied by society doyenne Mrs. Cornelius Vanderbilt III and subsequently by the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research. It was purchased by Ronald S. Lauder and Serge Sabarsky in 1994.
There are early 20th century German and Austrian works of art there; here’s a little bit about the two men who founded it:
Neue Galerie New York was conceived by two men who enjoyed a close friendship over a period of nearly thirty years: art dealer and museum exhibition organizer Serge Sabarsky and businessman, philanthropist, and art collector Ronald S. Lauder. Sabarsky and Lauder shared a passionate commitment to Modern German and Austrian art, and dreamed of opening a museum to showcase the finest examples of this work. After Sabarsky died in 1996, Lauder carried on the vision of creating Neue Galerie New York as a tribute to his friend.
not only were there some interesting pieces of art, but i also loved all the fixtures and everything. here’s a wonderful chandelier.
kevin, much happier here than in the crowded and non-interesting guggenheim.
i furtively took this picture of this fabulous light in the gift shop; i don’t know why i was afraid that the snooty clerks wouldn’t allow photos! i want one. or a pair of them.
one of the paintings on display was Gustave Klimt’s “Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer,” and it was very popular especially because the movie just came out called “the Woman in Gold,” about that painting. we must watch that movie soon.
as we left the museum, some tourists were indignant that the security guard wouldn’t let them in carrying their water bottles, and they decided to turn around and leave because they were so mad. hmm, people always seem more uptight in new york than other places.
we went to central park for a good long time; first, we sat on a bench and watched a dog as it played in a sprinkler – i took this picture, but i don’t even think you can see the dog. he was so funny; he kept getting a drink out of the high-powered jet. lots of cute dogs in central park.
We walked over to the Shakespeare Garden, a part of the park we’d never seen, and it was really lovely and peaceful.
a dragonfly on top of a thistle!
afterwards we stopped by the theater in the park cafe for some delicious hot dogs, then split a magnificent chocolate ice cream bar.
the bethesda fountain.
kevin’s friend charles hawes has posted some pictures of public bathrooms, and when i saw this in a stall i decided i had to take a picture.
we love sitting here on the mall watching the people go by. there were asian guys on either side, trying to get people to get their caricatures drawn. i don’t know how a person could possibly make any money doing that.
across from us, a girl and guy were very very excited to see a squirrel. i can’t imagine where they could be from, that they were so overjoyed about a squirrel-spotting. aren’t squirrels everywhere?
Plus this woman looks just like my friend kelly. she got the squirrel to come right over to her, but i don’t think she had any food for him, which of course is all he cared about.
the guy then started taking pictures of the squirrel…
…and soon a crowd gathered, and other people started taking pictures too! a squirrel photo frenzy! so much excitement in the big apple.
we strolled back towards our hotel, taking our time because it was pretty hot by this point. time square wasn’t quite so crazy.
we had a good meal at an italian place only a block from our hotel, then ventured back to times square briefly to check out the hustle and the bustle.
and that’s it, our only full day in new york, the day before kevin’s birthday, the day before we SET SAIL. we were excited at the prospect of that!
ok then,
mrs. cosmopolitan hughes.