Museums and Swanky Shopping

As promised here is a brief overview of my museum excursions of last weekend. Last Saturday morning I made my way towards New York via the NJ PATH and ended up in the World Trade Center station. It's been almost 12 years and it's still a construction site. A major station used by thousands of people each day and it only feels half finished. I was quite surprised. Of all the things I would think that you would want fully functional as soon as possible after a disaster, I would have thought it would be the subway/PATH station. They may have had some Sandy damage too, I don't know, but if that's the case then Sandy caused a whole boat load of damage where they had to scrap the whole place.

I did not make it to the memorial but did get a picture of the Freedom Tower from right by its base. Eventually I'll make it over there, I just wanted to get to MoMA as it opened.

I love how the tower reflects the sky so beautifully!

I did make it to MoMA (Museum of Modern Art) just after it had opened and was able to use my old Valpo ID to get the student price and save myself $10, score! I never want to look older than that picture and love that there are no years on our IDs. MoMA was everything I thought it would be and more! The top two floors were the painting and sculpture floors so it was the more traditional view of art but in a modern way. There were beauties from my favorites like Picasso, Van Gogh, and Dali. 

I may have giggled like a child when I saw this sign

And then giggled some more when I saw this

...and if I'm being honest, was a little disappointed when I saw this
(but don't get me wrong, it WAS amazing)

Yeah, my jaw dropped when I walked in here and saw the Water Lilies taking up AN ENTIRE WALL

soooooo much cooler in person
I stared at it for a good 15 minutes 

seriously? was this real life? SO BEAUTIFUL

Then on the other floors there were weird "art" things like this...

world's largest collection of dryer lint? ...at the bottom of functioning stairs...

I actually kinda liked this one. but not sure it qualifies for museum status

What. The. John. 

After walking around and being cultured for awhile I decided to make my way down Madison Ave and rub elbows with all the upper east side folk. Never have I ever seen so many stores with doormen. Literally every single store I went into had some poor soul that opened the door for me. I am sure it is part fancy pants customer service and part security but man did I feel important and simultaneously out of place. 

Of course I had to visit the mother ship of my favorite handbag designer (and fellow KKG alum) Kate Spade. Easily the happiest store I've been in. I went in knowing I was going to buy a necklace I've been lusting after online for a couple of months now. It was a calculated and thought out purchase and I consider it my "yay first big kid paycheck!" present to myself (I know you're probably shaking your head at me Mother, this was not an impulse buy and won't put a dent in the "I need a car" fund). When I first got into the store the lovely girl who greeted me asked if I needed help with anything and of course I asked her to point me in the direction of the necklace I wanted. Apparently this is how you get your own personal shopping assistant at Kate Spade! She showed me the necklace I wanted and then carried it around the store while following me as I browsed through all the beautiful purses and clothes I can't afford. She was really nice and we chatted as I browsed. Her boyfriend works in the insurance industry so maybe he has heard of the software my company sells, and she's been working at the store since May when it opened but somehow I don't think she's the type of person who needs a job. Rather I think she just seriously loves Kate Spade and got bored being a fabulous trust fund baby. Either way she was cool and I got a beautiful necklace and nice conversation out of the deal.

From there I walked through Central Park and headed to the American Museum of Natural History. Yeah, like in "Night at the Museum". I'm not the biggest on stuffed animal museums but I was told by several people that it was not to be missed. Overall my impression was that it was too crowded so I didn't get around to see everything. However, I did see the big bang movie!! It was a 4 minute movie made about the big bang and was shown in this cool circular auditorium thing where the floor was like a bowl and the movie was projected onto it. Oh yeah, did I mention it was narrated by Liam Neeson! Everyone says Morgan Freeman has the best narration voice but hearing Aslan narrate the beginning of time was pretty darn cool. 

After the natural history museum I was tuckered out and headed back to my hotel. After looking at a map and guestimating the routes I took, I walked about 40 blocks that day. My poor toesies were tired to say the least. 

Sorry this post was a bit picture heavy but I thought they were all so pretty! Shortly I'll write about my swanky yacht ride around New York Harbor from this past Thursday. Yeah, it was as awesome as it sounds and there will be even more amazing pictures.