Day 207 - A Long Walk, Central Park, and the Museum of Science and History.

Being an overcast day, we had some decisions to make that did not include a lot of walking.  In all the times I have lived and visited in NYC I had never been to either the MET or the Museum of History and Science.  So today we decided to make a museum day.  We departed early using our newly discovered access route to the subways.  We got off this time at 33 Street and decided to walk up to Grand Central Station and then catch another train to 79th.  Ha!  We got out on the busy, crowded streets and with a bit of sunshine got swept up into the chaos of it all.  Three hours later we had strolled a near 60 blocks through all of midtown, Chelsea, and the financial districts.  We walked by Roosevelt Center, Radio City, the Library, St. Pat's, and then up Lexington and into the upper east -side.  We realized that we had overshot our cross-over point for Central Park and had to backtrack a bit before crossing over the park and down to 79th.

We first toured the Historical Society's Museum.  They had an awesome multi-diminsinoal video and music presentation that was truly well done.  The exhibits were interesting.  The whole place was really hot and that cut our visit short.  We decided to get some lunch and opted for a Mexican cafe called Frida's that ended up being more of a South American/Cuban fusion.  It was tasty.

Then it was off to the big museum.  With five hours left to tour it we met huge lines, tons of ugly tourists, and gobs of kids.  Oops, we realized it was a city school holiday.  Once inside is wasn't bad and we wandered floor after floor of really cool exhibits.  The space center was very interesting and was full of adult oriented exhibits instead of catering to younger eyes.  The meteor room, dinosaur collection, gem stones, native american history, and some of the art were all outstanding.

We eventually ended our day with a rush-hour subway ride back to Grand Central Station where we met up with Andy Applegate.  Last we saw him was in Arkansas last November.  Being an active pilot, he had a layover during our visit and we hooked up for a few beers and oysters in the basement of Grand Central.  It was a great visit and the oysters were amazing.  We called it a night much later on and headed back to Jersey City.