Criss Cross Quiz

My first stop of my penultimate day here was to visit the American Museum of Natural History.  Now, to be honest, it probably wouldn't have been top of my list of places to visit, but the fact that (a) it is next door to my hotel and (b) with my New York Card it didn't cost me anything to go have a look meant that I was curious to see what was inside.  What I found was a very old fashioned museum, with the majority of exhibits either stuffed animals in glass display cases or about groups of people such as "Indians" (but not, say, "Europeans" - what was the implication about what was "Natural History" as opposed to just "History"?).  This seemed quite odd in this day and age (there were a few more modern displays, but they were in the minority) and whilst the museum was going through some renovation, it may well need a lot more before too long.

From here I walked across Central Park to the Whitney Museum.  Here I found a queue to get in - out into the street - for probably the first time at any venue.  The reason appeared to be that there was an exhibit with limited entry where you needed a timed ticket - I was offered one for 15:40 - given that it was 12:00 I felt I would have moved on elsewhere by then!  I was able to see the rest of the current exhibits though (the permanent collection was closed for renovations) including an interesting political-based floor.

I then took the Subway down to town, getting off at the impressive Grand Central Station, and when down there walked back across town via a second-hand book store where I could have bought many books if I had the luggage capacity!  I was walking over to visit the Intrepid Sea, Air & Space museum.  I had somewhat overlooked this museum until planning today but there were two key reasons to visit in that they had both a Concorde and a Space Shuttle there.  The Space Shuttle (Enterprise, which was the test shuttle) had only recently arrived following the retirement of the shuttle programme.  Both of these (and many more) were based on or by USS Intrepid, a huge aircraft carrier which saw service in World War II and Vietnam, which you could look round as well which was very interesting (although I am too tall to go to sea in the navy!). 

Finally I walked back across town (again), via the Times Square museum where they have the ball that drops every new year on display.  I went to visit the Paley Centre which had been advertised as a television and radio museum but was in fact an electronic library of many TV (and radio) shows which you could search, like a better quality version of You Tube.  I was able to round out my day spending a good period of time looking at some historic moments in US television.