New York City II (Day 2).

It was cold.  It was rainy.  My legs hurt.  My allergies were bad.  My stomach was sketchy.  I didn’t really feel like sightseeing or taking pictures, but I knew I only had three days in New York so I needed to get out and start walking instead of spending the entire morning in the hotel room…

I took an allergy pill, some ibuprofen, and a couple antacid tablets… followed by a whiskey chaser (just kidding on that part).  Properly doped up, I headed out.

Since I didn’t feel like spending much time walking outside, it seemed like a good day to go back to the Met.  On our previous visit I thought we had seen over half of the exhibits, but that estimate turned out to be way off base.  This place is even more huge than I could have guessed, and after almost three hours I realized I wouldn’t be able to see everything because my brain was toast.

If you have even a remote interest in art of any form, you should go to the Met.  Admission is a “suggested” $25, but you are allowed to make up your own admission price since they basically consider it a donation.  I threw out an offer of $15 and the kid in the booth didn’t balk as he rung it up and gave me my ticket.  The guy in front of me offered only $12, so I didn’t feel too bad.  Fifteen dollars isn’t much considering you get to see a room full of Monet’s, a few Rembrandt’s, a couple Van Gogh’s, Matisse, Gauguin, and more.  The big names bring in the crowds, but quite often I’m more taken with works by artists I’ve never heard of.  Since I’m far from being an art expert, there is a long list of artists I have yet to learn about.  The joy of discovery.

After the museum, I stopped at the Chrysler building and discovered tourists can’t go anywhere outside of the lobby.  However, it is a sweet lobby.

I also went to the Empire State Building and found that the same rules apply (and the lobby is small).  The main difference is that you can go to the observation deck on top of the Empire State Building if you so desire.  Over 20 years ago I went up to the 86th floor observation deck, and I probably will never go back due to an increasing fear of heights as I get older.

After getting scolded by security for taking a picture of the elevator banks, I headed back toward my hotel.

Earlier in the day I got scolded by an Amtrak employee for taking pictures of the trains in an area where I had taken pictures on several previous occasions.  Maybe she was just having a bad hair day and didn’t want to be photographed.

It wasn’t the most spectacular day compared to others I’ve had here.  However, since I’d rather be on the road than sitting at home, and I got to see things which some people will never get to see, I consider it a great day.  All days are diamonds when you are discovering something new.  I returned to the room to end the evening with pizza, garlic knots, and beer.  Then I started plotting my stops for the next day.

You can view the gallery for the entire trip here.