Hello Dum-Dum!

Friday was the Museum of Natural History so there are a few 'Night at the Museum' lines!

The outside is the same as is in the movie but that is about it. There are dinosaurs in the entry foyer but not the T-Rex, the real entry foyer also as some fine examples of what the Americans seem to love - queues.

The museum is on Central Park so it was another simple subway ride that dropped you at the door and we were there in about 15 mins. We joined the queue and admired the inefficiency of the people behind the counter, perhaps it was deliberate to slow people down but they faffed around so much it took a lot longer to get in than it had too. They also have a 'suggested' donation as an entry fee which we calculated as being $67 so we gave her $70 expecting change but she protested and said we have given her too much so we took $20 back and she was happy ... Klingons again.

This museum is fantastic. The photos below of the animals look like paintings but they are really highly detailed dioramas showing the animals in their natural habitat. There was the African Mammal hall, Indians, minerals, human evolution, gems, fossils of mammals, fossils of dinosaurs, info about forrests, info about sea creatures, everything you could think of. I liked the way they showed the categories of different creatures so you could see how different species were related.

We have invested in a couple of mobile phones so we split up and we were in there for hours. To me the best bit was the ancient mammal and dinosaur fossils.

There were a few things in the museum that came up in the movie, the herd of elephants and the Easter Island statue (dum dum) were the two I noticed. We were looking for mentions of Australia and there were a few in the gemstone hall and some aboriginal art - though the map they had was missing Tasmania.

We came out when it was starting to get dark but I wanted to go to Strawberry Fields and see the Dakota Building where John Lennon was shot. We walked south besides Central Park and went past the Childrens Museum, I tried to convince the kids they had stuffed children in there from different times but they didn't believe me, Tracey said they only had a stuffed Juvenile James in there. So rude.

The Dakota Building is an amazing building, gothic style with a very informative doorman who explained what happened and where he died. Just across the road in Central Park is Strawberry Fields and the Imagine mosaic. Someone had put roses on it and there were a few people around taking pictures.

Then we wandered down to Times Square to go to 'Famous Daves Steak House' for dinner. The boys had t-bones,Tracey had chicken and I had ribs. In true US style it was a massive feed.

We experienced rush-hour US style on the way home. Nothing else to do except head down and shove, people don't wait for you to get off the doors open and it is a free for all. They open and close the doors a few times to make sure everyone fits in and then lurch off, you have to hope someone is holding on as we were jammed in so tight we couldn't reach a hand hold. Luckily we made it home OK and turned in for an early night.

Tomorrow - Carnage on 5th Avenue!Read more