So lets just forget about New Year's resolutions, I'm just going to do what I do best: whatever I feel like doing. Apparently after leaving town for almost three weeks I lost steam on my goals. You know what they say: life is what happens while your busy planning. So no more planning. Just life. You know that thing that happens to you when you're trying to get stuff done. Anyway, on to the story telling!
New York was amazing as usual. Cold, wintry and a place unlike any other. I was in a bit of a snow storm which was cool when I was in my hotel room, but not so cool once I had to brave the aftermath the next morning. Of course it was the day that I had planned on taking a day trip to the National Museum of Natural History. Oh yeah, and the day that I had to move from the hotel I was staying at to another hotel a couple of blocks away where I would be staying for the remainder of my stay.
Ha ha! Business people trudging through the snow storm remains. Nice view from my hotel window: I know. It was the best I could do. Don't worry though, I myself had some snowy adventures not too long after I was pitying these poor souls.
What none of my pictures can convey to you is the amount of slush that you had to wade through to get from one sidewalk to the other. The sidewalk appears street level, but that is because the melty slushy snow is up to the top of the curb...a fact I learned the hard way when I didn't realize how deep it was as I crossed my first street of the morning.
Snow, snow and more snow. There's just nowhere for it all to go when it is trapped in the city. It is pushed into human size piles along the sides of the road where it sat the whole time I was in the city. I wish I could really show you what it was like, but it is just something you have to walk through yourself to understand it.
Making a long story short...(well not really) taking a taxi to my new hotel to check in and then to the museum. The streets were so bad that I could get a ride for $100. Yeah right. So I walked. I checked in sans suitcase (I'll explain this later :) and got instructions from the concierge on how to take the subway to the museum and then how to get back at the end of the day.
I had my map, I had my directions and I had gumption! I was on a mission!
Did I mention that by this time I had realized that Converse were NOT even close to proper snow attire: well I realized this very quickly. Before I had even made it to the new hotel my feet were soaked and freezing cold. But, there was no way I was going to change my plans. I was going to the museum if it was the last thing I did.
In a moment of desperation on my way to Columbus Circle subway station I passed what must have been the most expensive shoe store on the street. I walked in, held my foot in the air and said to the salesman greeting me "This is NOT working. I hope you sell socks too."
At this point I am sure he was laughing at me in his head making some comment about the blonde girl who is obviously not from here.
Yay! New boots. Let's just say they served their purpose. They are a bit reminiscent of good old Saint Nick's boots: black and shiny complete with buckle. They were the cheapest in store, which isn't saying much because they were still $40, but lets move on.
Just in case you didn't know, Columbus Circle station is on the corner of Central Park. Talk about major photo opportunity! Central Park, fresh snow, new boots...I could have spent all day there.
Basically it was really amazing. I wish I could say that these pictures capture the feeling but they don't.
Anyway, I made it to the appropriate subway station.
And after some asking around about how to get a subway ticket and asking numerous times what train I was supposed to get on I finally made it to the right place.
It was pretty unmistakable that I had indeed made it to the stop for the museum.
So the dinosaurs led the way out to the street and I spent the next four or so hours roaming the 4 stories at will. Everything was amazing and I took about a million pictures. I got to go in the butterfly conservatory with all the butterflies fluttering around which was pretty cool.
There were lots of butterfly specimens too which is a little gruesome since they are all dead and impaled with little needles, but still beautiful to look at. :)
Well I am getting tired of the whole NY story and there is too much to tell and too many pictures. I left the museum, made it back to my stop on the subway train, went to the hotel to pick up my bags and transport them to the new hotel and happily drug said suitcase through foot deep snow slush as fast as I could to prevent the water from soaking all of my clothes. I was on such a mission to get to my hotel that in fact I went a block too far and then had to go back, but I got there in one piece and although the suitcase was wet I am glad to say that nothing inside was.
Okay, I think that's it for now. I may have forgotten something since I wrote this over an entire week but if you hung on this long congratulations: you get a brownie button.
