Limited Access Visit #7: the Guggenheim

The Guggenheim re-opened a few weeks later than all the other museums with far trickier hours to work with but I got a couple reservations to go there at 5:15pm October 3rd. I had not been to the Guggenheim for a VERY long time, like, easily 11 years? The exhibit there right now is about the countryside. It was like a Museum of Science + Industry exhibit mixed with an art exhibit.

A special thing about this museum trip is I went with Patricia, who I hadn’t seen since the beginning of March.
Another thing about this museum trip was it turns out the Guggenheim closes at 6. So we had 45 minutes to see what we could see. It was nearly enough time for the rotunda, but not enough to check on the other galleries.

In Sum: Not a whole lot of people there, but also not a lot of visiting options. Still, it’s just fun to be in the Guggenheim, even if it’s for about half an hour.

Limited Access Visit #6: New York Botanical Garden and Bronx Zoo Redo

On September 30th I took my first trip to the New York Botanical Garden. What it turns out to be is like a park that’s big and easy to walk around in. There are also greenhouses that weren’t included in my free ticket. Those greenhouses are probably full of interesting plants and flowers. Another thing is that before you go to the Garden you should check on a map where the entrance is because if you just walk there assuming where the entrance is you may be wrong and spend a lot of time backtracking looking for it.

The Garden is across the street from Fordham University

The Bronx Zoo is across another street from the Garden, so I took advantage of being right by it to go check out the World of Birds which I didn’t go to on my first visit there.

Well I was quite impressed by the World of Birds, really it was rather terrific.

After the World of Birds I went and checked on my buddy Chestnut.

Passed by the lions, they were roaring.

Then it turns out there’s a whole Bear Mountain that I completely missed on my first visit somehow.

AND there’s a spectacular Reptile House that I also totally missed on my first trip.

World of Birds, Bear Mountain and the Reptile House really improve my opinion of the Bronx Zoo, which I found a little overwhelming in size and underwhelming in exhibits on my first visit.

Limited Access Visit #5: American Museum of Natural History

On the 25th I went to the Natural History museum. I brought with me the prejudice that it was a pretty dull museum best used for grade school field trips. I was there to see the whole thing and see if that would change my mind.

I think this post will mostly be an image dump. We start at the entry, we go through the animals, we see some indigenous peoples, go see the dinosaurs, then more animals, and then the tiny bit of the space part that was open. That was basically it.

So. Yeah. The AMNH doesn’t really do it for me. It’s like fun to see the animals for a while, I love a diorama, after all. And then some of the people stuff. But eventually it’s just kind of a yawn. A few times the last couple years I have cut through the museum from Columbus to Central Park West instead of walking down 77th street and I think that’s my favorite way to see it: quickly, looking at a few things as I walk by them, maybe going down to see the whale. Something that was kind of fun about this visit was that it was so very empty, bu there were cleaning people just about everywhere. So must exhibits it was just me, some pots and stones, and the sound of a janitor’s cart rolling through the room. Two more things: somehow they manage to show off a lot of dinosaurs without making it exciting at all AND the museum is currently very on display showing that it is struggling with its connection to Teddy Roosevelt. I understand that the statue in front can be viewed as rather culturally and racially insensitive BUT to be displaying that you’re thinking of cutting ties with TR completely? Yeah. That’s a mistake.