Thanks to free tickets from a Container Store co-worker, today April and I spent a blarge portion of the day at the American Museum of Natural History.
It was utterly fascinating. You could spend weeks there and never exhaust all there is to learn, challenge and explore. We spent hours taking in the Darwin exhibit, the IMAX film on the Galapagos Islands, Butterfly exhibit and as much of the museum’s other exhibitions as we could. The museum is an almost endless maze of artifacts and collections.
Visit: www.amnh.org
From the museum we walked down Central Park West. We passed famous residences like the San Reno and Dakota and crossed into the park. I showed April the memorial to John Lennon and then my favorite spot, the Bethseda Fountain.
We looped through the Park and came out at Columbus Circle where we took the train down to Chelsea and had drinks at G Lounge (on vacation a few years ago I discovered their Merry Martini’s – peppermint schnapps and Godiva White Chocolate liquor – heaven!) before heading down to Little Italy for dinner. April and I walked through Chinatown and then started scouting menus for a place to eat dinner.
Visit: www.glounge.com
We finally settled on a corner restaurant and had a delicious meal with questionable prices. In Little Italy around dinnertime you will see “barkers” outside almost every restaurant. They draw you in with descriptions of their specials or some reduced prices. We liked the menu and took the bait. When the bill came we saw that we were lured in at one price and charged another. Thinking we were tourists or that I wouldn’t cause a fuss, I called them out on it.
It all came down to – not what we’d been told – but that I had pointed at the menu vs. just saying what I wanted. April had been charged one amount and I had been charged another – though our portion sizes were identical.
April and I didn’t back down and eventually it was corrected.
It was sour end to a nice meal, but we left trying to focus on the positive. We rode the subway back to my apartment and settled in for the night. April leaves early in the morning, so she started packing up her stuff and worked on a little more schoolwork.
I'm glad she's had several days here. It's felt like Tim's visit a couple weeks ago. Both Tim and April stayed for several days - it's nice because then you don't feel like you're rushing everywhere to "do" something - you can just enjoy being together.
