We spent our last night in NYC having a nice dinner and walking the streets as a light snow fell on us. We didn't know exactly what we were getting ourselves into by blindly picking an apartment for a place to spend three nights, but it really worked out wonderfully. Having a small apartment to return to that evening was almost like we truly lived in the city, if only for a short time.

The next morning, having a few hours before our train departure, found us back in the park. It was much colder this day, and with a small dusting of snow on the ground, it was very pretty yet obvious that we had been very fortunate regarding the weather we encountered. I'm not sure we would have been up to walking 50+ blocks our first evening in the city had the wind and cold been as frigid as it was at the end of our visit.

There were probably a thousand things we didn't have a chance to do while in town, but we really enjoyed what we were able to accomplish. Hopefully there will be a whole new set of pictures from a trip in the near future.

We left the museum and wandered in Central Park again, this time slowly, taking in as much as we could as the afternoon hours passed. According to our travel book, Central Park has nearly 58 miles of paths that can be followed. We weren't quite adventurous enough to try and follow them all, but even if we had been, it probably would have taken us a month to get through it all since I would have kept stopping and taking pictures of every great view.

On the way back to our apartment, we decided to stop in the Whitney Museum of American Art which was boasting a Alexander Calder exhibit.

There are a number of Calder pieces at the galleries in DC, but having the opportunity to look at so many of his wire sculptures was really exciting for me. I never quite appreciated his ability to capture motion in a simple sculpture until I was able to study them up close.

Plus, the gallery had a significant collection of Calder's Circus, a playful dynamic display that, again, had an amazing ability to truly replicate the actions and excitement of the big top.

Pictures of the Calder exhibit are from the Whitney website.

After resting a while from our long day at the museum, we took a cab ride through Times Square to Kinokuniya, a Japanese book store that Nicole had wanted previously heard about. Spanning three floors, the collection of books, magazines, DVDs, and Anime kept us entertained until closing time. There was also a fun band playing in the cafe upstairs to a full house audience. The experience was a very nice city-life compliment to the visitor-centric locations we had attended to date.

The next day once again found us wandering through Central Park as we headed towards the American Museum of Natural History.

I've been reading a bit on paleontology lately, so starting our tour on the fourth floor which was dedicated to fossils and bones of dinosaurs and other prehistoric creatures kept me grinning from ear to ear for some time. Not unlike the Met, the expansiveness of the exhibit was nearly overwhelming; most exhibits in the world would likely be happy to have ten percent of what the Museum had.

The gem and mineral collection was also vast, containing collections of multiple formations, varieties, and displays.

Here was a small collection of artwork created from different gemstones.

Neither Nicole nor I had any idea there were so many different types of opals.

There are many better words to describe the Met than Big, but Big is the one that stood out above all others after we could barely stand on our feet after spending all day walking the beautiful galleries.

I don't think I could say I liked any one collection over another, but I was mesmerized by the Chinese landscape paintings by Wang Hui, which complimented our visit to the Sackler Museum in DC a few months ago.

In fact, the entire Asian art section was quite fascinating.

I truly hope I'm alone in thinking this Buddha statue looked a little too much like George Bush.

Even selections from the Arts of Africa, something I never thought much of, were magnificent to look at.

Although we were lucky to see as much as we did, including the European Paintings that had, amongst other items, many Rembrandt portraits (including his self portrait), a large selection of musical instruments from various eras and nationalities (including watching a technician tuning a harpsichord), and a wide selection of arms and armor (with Henry VIII's suit of armor), I have a feeling we missed loads of neat stuff in the one day we spent in the halls. I truly hope to go back to do it all again very soon.

The Egyptian Art wing in the Met was our first visit. To put our mindset in perspective, a couple years ago we visited the Tutankhamun exhibit in Philadelphia which was an incredible display of relics from Egypt and the Tutankhamun tomb.

And to put it bluntly, the Met squashed that exhibit like a grape.

That sounds more cruel against the Tut exhibit than it should, but the real message is just how expansive the Met's exhibit was. Room after room of ancient artifacts completely overwhelmed us from large statues to walls of artwork. There were cases of trinkets and scarabs that looked as commonplace as Cracker Jack toys. There was a room of multiple sarcophagus lined up as if it were a morgue.

Perhaps most impressive was the Temple of Dendur, exhibited in the beautiful Sackler Wing of the museum overlooking Central Park. Here was a haven for visitors to explore the remarkable exhibit or to simply relax in the peaceful confines.

Inside the temple was another interesting find - graffiti. But not contemporary graffiti; markings over a century old. Funny to think that J Livingston scratched his name into this piece of art close to two hundred years ago...perhaps the predecessor to today's Bart Simpson.

Even the decayed pieces were stunning to look at, showing not only the precision of the sculpture, but the effects of time.

We started the next day marching around Central Park on the way to the Metropolitan Museum of Art. It was a cold morning, not necessarily uncomfortably so, but enough that I was amazed at how many folks were out jogging. I could only think of how the cold air would be tearing my lungs to shreds if I were attempting to race in the below freezing temperatures. Good for the locals; I was very impressed.

The views from the Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis Reservoir towards the elaborate apartments on the west side held our attention for a good long time.

The first thing that struck us about the Met was its size, engulfing a broad portion of the east side of Central Park off of 5th avenue. Being in DC, we are familiar with the massive buildings of the Smithsonian and other DC museums and the large collections they boast. It didn't take long to realize the National Gallery of Art, one of the more elaborate collections downtown, was a mere dwarf in comparison to the exterior of the Met.

Even before we walked inside, we knew we had a big day ahead of us.

After walking 50 blocks down Madison Ave. as mentioned in the previous post, we found ourselves at Rockefeller Center to view the famous tree and skating rink. The crowd was large but not overwhelming, and we were able to comfortably bask in the glow of the lights, music, and majestic buildings.

Most of the nearby buildings were festively adorned.

Fidelity had an interesting display, apparently reassigning the person recently responsible for managing my 401k to be a permanent fixture behind their model train.

Our lone fame-sighting was a brush with John Malkovich who walked out of the NBC building right in front of us to enter his vehicle. He wasn't decorated in Christmas lights, however, so there wasn't much reason to take a picture of him.

Nicole was born in NYC, but hasn't been back to visit since her college days. My visits were always very focused with little time for exploration. Consequently, once we arrived and settled into our apartment, any definite plans were disregarded to fulfill the simple desire to walk around and drink in the atmosphere.

Starting from the apartment on 98th and Madison, we started walking south, glaring up at every architectural wonder and into every shop window that was glamorously decorated for the holiday season. The design of each display was remarkable; from clothing to jewelry to specialty shops, the style behind each presentation was a step above anything I had ever seen before.

Naturally, my camera was drawn to polar bears frolicking in the window.

This closeup of a hanging ornament display barely captures the elaborate Christmas decorations many of the windows boasted.

We spent a few days in New York City. I'll document some of the trip highlights over the next few entries.

After arriving and lunching in Penn Station, we wandered around the area awaiting the time we could check into the apartment we had rented for a few nights. As an impromptu decision, we rode up to the observation deck of the Empire State Building to spy the city on a hazy, cold afternoon. We apparently picked a good time to visit, waltzing past empty velvet rope-rows and probably a score of gift shops right to the elevators that took us to the 86th floor observation deck.

Having only visited NYC in the past on day trips, I have to admit I had a bit of anxiety as to what all I would experience while there for three evenings. Oddly, starting the journey on top of the Empire State had a way of framing the city for me. While it is expansive and quite impressive to gaze upon, I found that looking down on it from such a height put the city in a manageable perspective. I pinpointed the street our apartment was on...sixty blocks north of where I was looking down from; but still, I had the right road in my head. I blocked out the general areas we were planning on visiting. All of a sudden, it seemed kinda small.

Perhaps this is why our cats like sitting up high on items in the house.

The pigeons were a trip, walking right up to us and even landing on some goofy kids who teased the birds with food a little too much. Fresh off reading Courtney Humphries' Superdove, I was intrigued as to the actions these birds would take around me. As they stared into the camera as if they were posing for a picture, I was not disappointed.