Museum & Park combo

You can't visit New York City and miss Central Park. This amazing piece of paradise in the middle of the Concert Jungle attracts about 42 million visitors every year. 

 

FROM WIKIPEDIA: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Central_Park

Central Park is an urban park in New York City, between the Upper West and Upper East Sides of Manhattan. It is the fifth largest park in the city, covering 843 acres (341 ha). It is the most visited urban park in the United States, with an estimated 42 million visitors annually as of 2016, and is the most filmed location in the world.

After proposals for a large park in Manhattan during the 1840s, it was approved in 1853 to cover 778 acres (315 ha). In 1857, landscape architects Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux won a design competition for the park with their "Greensward Plan". Construction began the same year; existing structures, including a majority-Black settlement named Seneca Village, were seized through eminent domain and razed. The park's first areas were opened to the public in late 1858. Additional land at the northern end of Central Park was purchased in 1859, and the park was completed in 1876. After a period of decline in the early 20th century, New York City parks commissioner Robert Moses started a program to clean up Central Park in the 1930s. The Central Park Conservancy, created in 1980 to combat further deterioration in the late 20th century, refurbished many parts of the park starting in the 1980s.

Since Sofia is so into science and nature, I thought it would be nice to visit the American Museum of Natural History. The line ups were discouraging, but they moved fast and we were inside - with air conditioning! - within one hour.  Totally worthy it!

FROM WIKIPEDIA: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Museum_of_Natural_History

The American Museum of Natural History (abbreviated as AMNH) is a natural history museum on the Upper West Side of Manhattan in New York City. In Theodore Roosevelt Park, across the street from Central Park, the museum complex comprises 26 interconnected buildings housing 45 permanent exhibition halls, in addition to a planetarium and a library. The museum collections contain over 34 million specimens of plants, animals, fossils, minerals, rocks, meteorites, human remains, and human cultural artifacts, as well as specialized collections for frozen tissue and genomic and astrophysical data, of which only a small fraction can be displayed at any given time. The museum occupies more than 2 million square feet (190,000 m²). AMNH has a full-time scientific staff of 225, sponsors over 120 special field expeditions each year, and averages about five million visits annually.

We museum is huge, with four floors, but we focused on dinosaurs...

...African mammals,

... minerals, gems, planet Earth and indigenous history.

https://www.amnh.org/exhibitions/permanent/gems-minerals

The Mignone Halls of Gems and Minerals tell the fascinating story of how the vast diversity of mineral species arose on our planet, how scientists classify and study them, and how we use them for personal adornment, tools, and technology. The galleries feature more than 5,000 specimens from 98 countries.

Back at Central Park, the skyscrapers sometimes remind us that we are in a big city, after all. 

But the turtles bring us back to paradise.

Is this New York City?????

A male Northern Cardinal, one of the bird species in Central Park. 

It was absolutely cute... and super red!

The carousel - $3.50 a ride - was another Central Park attraction on our list. 

There are 21 different playgrounds in Central Park. We choose the Heckscher playground to cool down from the super hot day. It felt so good to get completely soaked and not care about it.

FROM :https://www.centralpark.com/things-to-do/activities/playgrounds/

Heckscher Playground is not only the oldest playground in Central Park, it is also the largest at nearly three acres. In addition to the typical park attractions, such as a variety of slides, swings, and seesaws, Heckscher Playground features both a water fixture and giant rocks for climbing. It is also famed for its kickball games, which are popular during the summertime. Located at 7th Avenue and Central Park South, Heckscher Playground runs from 61st to 63rd streets and is open from 7:30am until dusk. The Playground opened in 1926, when it was named for August Heckscher Sr., the grandfather of Parks Commissioner August Heckscher III. Complete with its own restrooms and snack carts, the Playground is best suited for children ages 6 to 12. Heckscher Playground is most populated during the spring and summer months. Time Out Kids Magazine, May 2015, named this playground #12 on their top 25 playground list.

Instead of taking the subway back to the hotel after being on our feet for the whole day, we picked a different but fun ride in one of the many bicycle taxis around Manhattan. 

We got dropped off at Times Square with style! :)

We were too hungry and tired to look for a nice place to have dinner and said we were going to stop at the first sushi place we could see outside the hotel. Yuri Sushi is a tiny little take out cabin in the corner of 46 street and 9th Avenue.  I know it was a little brave of me to do it, but the place looked busy and legit. 

Lets hope for the best. 

Today's sunset from the 17th floor of the hotel.