My feet hurt

I had a few more things on my "must see" list, and they included the two great art Museums of New York City, the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) and the Metropolitan Museum of Art (The Met). However, the first stop on my hike uptown was St. Patrick's Cathedral.



I've always loved Gothic cathedrals, so I was very eager to see one of the more famous American examples. Being that it was Sunday morning, mass was already in full swing when I arrived. I took a few discreet photos, listened to a reading, and then slipped away from the tourist area they had set up at the rear of the church.



I have never been a fan of Modern Art. I often find it more interesting than beautiful, and I personally look for beauty in art. However, the MoMA is home to Vincent Van Gogh's Starry Night, which may well be one of the most famous paintings in the world. This alone was enough to convince me to make the trip.



Sadly, when I arrived I found that Starry Night was on loan to the Van Gogh museum in Amsterdam! I still went in, and was glad that I did. While I may never really like modern art, I certainly gained an appreciation for the skill of the artists represented there. One exhibit that I did enjoy was devoted to Russian artists around the Revolution, and how they got caught up in the heady rush of early communism and how they adopted their "bourgeois" art to a more "people" oriented outlet for their creativity. One oil painter began designing furniture, and some worked on propaganda for the new regime.



From there I hiked up to the Met, and was glad that I did. If there is any collection that could rival the Louvre it lives here, off of Central Park. The first area I went to was the extensive Egyptian collection, which is perhaps the finest in the world and certainly the best in North America. Like many people, I've always found the culture of ancient Egypt absolutely fascinating, and the vast numbers of artifacts, statues and inscriptions on display kept entranced.



You can't have an art museum without art, and so from the Egyptian area I made my way to the opposite wing of the Met for a look at their European collection. They have an amazing selection of Impressionists, including some Van Gogh's to take away the sting of the missing Starry Night.



I really enjoyed each of these paintings by Monet, especially the winter chill that you can feel looking at the one on the left.



I also really liked these painting for their sheer size and romanticism.



The Met also had a large collection of Asian art, including a bunch of Japanese wood block prints and a few huge examples from China. I've obviously seen a lot of Japanese art in my time, but the styles of the artifacts and statues from China were all pretty new to me.



I filtered out of the Met shortly before closing time, after having walked from the Port Authority bus terminal on 42nd street to the Met on 83rd street. Phew. However, my day was over, but the night was just beginning, so I made my way to Times Square to meet up with my hosts for a night on the town!

USS Intrepid

On the opposite side of Manhattan is the USS Intrepid Air and Space Museum. By this point in the day, my feet were in no small amount of pain, but I figured for a chance to see an authentic WW II era aircraft carrier, I could limp a bit.



I have a penchant for visiting museum ships, and have seen battleships, submarines, cruisers and more, but there are very few preserved aircraft carriers, making a stop at the Intrepid a must while I was in the neighborhood. She was commissioned as an Essex class fleet carrier in World War II, and saw action throughout the Pacific Theater. She also saw service in the Korean War, and in Vietnam. While she launched plenty of sorties against Hanoi, the Intrepid was by that time lagging behind in size and creature comforts compared to her larger newer sisters like the Forrestal Class super-carriers that had been built in the late 50's, and were designed to launch jets, and not piston engined fighters and bombers.



No matter how well as ship has fought, there comes a time when there is nothing to be gained by keeping her around, and the Intrepid's fate was the scrapyard, until a local millionaire decided to make a museum out of her, and park her on the Hudson River.



Not only do visitors get a chance to explore a ship that is steeped in modern history, but they also get to see a great many fantastic examples of Aviation history. I go to see just how small and cramped a Concorde really is (though the high speed flight would make it a lot more tolerable), and glimpse the A-12, the CIA built predecessor to the famous SR-71 Blackbird. As well, there were jets and helicopters from all over the world displayed around the flight deck.



Through no fault of my own, I had actually ended up in New York during Fleet Week, when navy ships park in berths along the Hudson to allow the sailors a weekend of liberty in New York, and to allow New Yorkers and tourists a glimpse of a real working ship of war. Sadly I was far too footsore, and it was far too late in the day, for me to tour the rest of the ships.



All in all I had had a long day, visiting Ellis Island, the Brooklyn Bridge, Ground Zero AND the Intrepid all in one day, I felt the miles, so I was plenty glad to grab a bus from the Port Authority and head home, to a giant meatball sub and a soft bed, ready to head out the next day for some more epic walking around The City.

Denver's on Fire!

Yesterday we celebrated both the birthday of the US of A and my 28th year. It was the first time I'd been in the States for July 4th for three years, so I was pretty excited about the chance to really celebrate, and see some fireworks.



After a great BBQ Jen and I went to my friend Todd's house, so we could watch the Westminster fireworks display. We had a fantastic view of the professional display, and I had a field day with my camera and tripod, finally getting some good fireworks shots.



After the professional show ended, we had our own show, with some fireworks I brought back from Wyoming in January. We weren't the only ones, the Denver area was awash in smoke and exploding rockets. It's been an uncommonly wet spring and summer, and I wonder if people decided to take advantage of the low fire danger.

Brooklyn Bridge

Miss Liberty

One thing that every American who goes to New York should do is at least swing by Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty. Staying in New Jersey really paid off this morning, as the line for the Jersey ferry was hours shorter than the line at Battery Park on the tip of Manhattan.



Ellis Island was fascinating, especially the displays of artifacts, both the unusual and the utterly common. Getting a glimpse of the lives of the over 12 million souls who passed through the buildings is a rare and sobering experience. Another bit that really interested me was a display on the condition of the buildings between their abandonment in the '50s and their restoration in the 1980s.



I didn't make it to the ferry terminal in time to get a ticket for the Statue of Liberty, so rather than queue to go to Liberty Island and then queue again for the trip to Battery Park, I just skipped a visit to Lady Liberty and just took a few snaps from the ferry as we went by.



After disembarking on the far tip of Manhattan, I started hoofing towards another symbol, this one of engineering prowess rather than hope and freedom. Next stop, the Brooklyn Bridge!

The American Museum of Natural History

New York is very Platonic. In many ways it is the 'Form' of the city, and really typifies urban living in all its highs and lows. Within the larger city you have other institutions that are very iconic, like the Empire State Building, Grand Central Station, The Metropolitan Museum of Art (more on that later) and the American Museum of Natural History.



Being a fairly scientific sort, as well as a history minded sort, The American Museum was very high on my list of things to see. Right before coming I had re-read the book Dinosaurs in the Attic by Douglas Preston, a short jaunt through the history of the Museum itself and its vast collections. This left me armed with a bit more information than the average museum attendee, but was a bit of a liability because it made me want to see everything.



I started in a large hall devoted to Geology, which is a subject I am quite fond of. I noticed that the displays were perfectly balanced to all levels, with something for the total beginner but also with a lot of displays with the well educated layman in mind.

From there it was off to the Hall of North American Mammals, with it's impressive habitat displays from all over the country. Of course I had to take a picture of the elk, collected it Colorado.



From there I moved on to the Carl Akeley Hall of African Mammals. The museum has long been on the forefront of both science and display, and one of their breakthroughs was the 'habitat group', a diorama of an animal in its natural habitat. One of the champions of the habitat group was Carl Akely, a taxidermist and collector who also did work for the Field Museum in Chicago. His passion was Africa, and he wanted to create a hall dedicated to the great animals that roamed the vast wilderness's that still covered most of the continent. While on an expedition to the Belgian Congo to prepare the gorilla group, he caught a fever and died in the rain forest on the slopes of a volcano. He was buried right at the spot reproduced in the diorama, a small clearing on the slopes of Mt. Mikeno.





Of course, no museum of natural history is complete without a large cache of dinosaur bones. They had a huge display of fossils, displayed by family and geologic time period, but of course the real show stopper is the T-Rex. Though the museum's Apatosaurus (Brontosaurs to the non-paleontologists in the room) is also a most worthy specimen.





As visitors leave the dinosaurs behind there are more modern fossils, like this epic elk from Ireland.



Soon after I exited through the main entrance, foot sore and mentally stuffed after seeing far more exhibits that I could recount. My travels had taken me all over the museum, seeing the Halls of Meteors, Asian Peoples, African Peoples, Great Apes and more. It really was an amazing place, and like all great museums, there remains plenty more to see when I go back...

1,250 Feet Above Sea Level

This past Memorial day weekend I ventured to the heart of an unexplored territory, the East Coast of the United States. Interestingly enough, despite having done a fair amount of traveling internationally, before this weekend aside from layovers in Dulles I had never visited anywhere east of Chicago, and even my time there could scarcely be termed a 'visit.'



With a whole branch of the family living along the Eastern Seaboard, I decided it was high time to alter this state of affairs. After viewing the shockingly high prices of Manhattan hotels I contacted my (second, third?) cousin Kris to see if I could arrange a bed at her home in New Jersey. Luckily for me, a bed was available so I booked a flight and was soon on my way.



While I have often been a bit nervous while scrambling across the scree fields of Colorado's 14ers, I do have a passion for high places and the spectacular views they afford. With the hearty endorsement of Kris's husband Steve my first stop in the city was The Empire State Building for a panoramic view of Manhattan and the surrounding Burroughs and states.



Previous travels have seen me at the top of the dome of St. Paul's Cathedral in London (108 Meters), the Landmark Tower in Yokohama (296 meters), the Eiffel Tower (324 Meters) and Tokyo Tower, (333 Meters). Stretching 381 meters (1,250 feet) the Empire State Building is far and away the tallest man made object I have had the pleasure of ascending. Despite the fact that it was completed back in 1931 it still ranks as the 15th tallest building in the world and since the tragedy of 911 is back to being the tallest building in New York City.



Indeed, while the Empire State Building has been surpassed by other taller structures, I would say that it's never been surpassed in popular imagination. After all, King Kong hasn't climbed Taipei 101, or any of the behemoths under construction in Dubai! In a way, the Empire State Building is still The Skyscraper, just as the city below is still The City.



There are two observatories at the top of the building, an outdoor one on the 86th floor, and a smaller indoor one perched at the very top on the 102nd floor. I had to see both. The view, as expected, was mesmerizing, and the 102nd floor was shockingly devoid of tourists. Most people opted for the almost as fantastic view, at a cheaper price. I'm glad I paid the extra though, both for the amazing vistas in ever direction and for the bragging rights!



Interestingly enough, on the ground floor was a Chipotle Mexican Grill, with the requisite photo of the world's first Chipotle, located a few blocks from where I grew up here in Denver. Also, while on the 102nd floor, I overheard a tour group from Scotland chatting about the view... and correctly picked out the one from Glasgow! After descending back down to the bottom, I headed to the subway to see if I could find my way uptown to the American Museum of Natural History.