Plan A...and B

This last Saturday we headed into Manhattan for some sightseeing. Well, actually Plan A was to try to win the Wicked lottery. They have a drawing for tickets to some of the Broadway shows a couple of hours before they start. If your name gets picked, you get to purchase the tickets at a heavily discounted price. Because it was a Saturday, and it is now summertime, we were expecting a huge crowd of people there and weren't really expecting to get picked. We had the time though, and thought why not.

In front of the Gershwin Theater where Wicked is playing.

Right before the drawing...we couldn't help but be excited.

Since we didn't get the tickets, we moved onto Plan B: sightseeing. Part of Broadway was blocked off for a street fair so we wandered up the street a ways looking at the booths. The weather was gorgeous, the streets were busy and I couldn't help but be amazed once again that we are in New York City.

We came upon the Ed Sullivan Theater where the Late Show is filmed. We have thought about putting our names in for free tickets to try and get into a taping, but we just haven't ever gotten around to it yet.

Right around the corner we found the Hello Deli....I snapped a picture for my family in Idaho. One of the first things they said when they learned we were going to New York is that we needed to visit the Hello Deli and say hi to Rupert. This picture is for them. We poked our heads inside and I got to see Rupert, but there was a line and we had packed lunches for the day so we didn't buy anything from him.

We headed up to the Museum of Natural History. We've been wanting to go back since we went the first time with my family last October. We didn't get to spend as much time here as we would have liked when they came so we decided to revisit it on Saturday. Here is Brian outside the Planetarium in the museum. If you watch the show "White Collar" you'll recognize this place from their show last week. :)

We walked around to the front of the building to go through the main entrance. Very neat.

Dinosaur display just inside the main entrance.

We walked around exhibits of the Peoples of the Pacific Islands...

North America...

and South America. This stone head was ginormous!

We loved this stone figure of a small fat dog. That is what it was labeled too. Apparently small, fat dogs were found in their artwork and carvings a lot because they considered dog meat a delicacy.

I loved the Incan stone figures.

They had a giant Incan sundial carved from stone. This was super cool as well.

We exited the museum through the side entrance and found a cute little square shaded with trees. There was a fountain in the middle of the square surrounded by short hedges and flowers. We stopped and ate our lunches here. There is something awesome about sharing a picnic lunch with your husband in a cute little square outside of the Museum of Natural History in New York City.

While we were eating lunch, Brian started dropping tiny bread crumbs on the ground to feed the little birds that were hopping around at our feet. It was very comical to watch them vie for the next piece of bread. Eventually we attracted a couple of big, fat pigeons. One of these guys came limping in on a stub leg. We dubbed him Long John Silver because he walked like a pirate on his stub and his one good leg. The pigeons seemed to intimidate the little birds and scare them away from their meal...especially Long John. I'd be scared of him too if I were just a little bird, what with his looming presence and creepy walk. Sadly, we didn't get a picture of him...he really was creepy.

We walked across the street and decided to wander a bit in Central Park. We found Turtle Pond...and it was beautiful. There is a great view looking out over the water and towards the city from the bridge at one end of the pond.

Brian and I with the city in the background.

We wanted to get closer to the water to have a better view of the turtles swimming around in there so we followed a path that winded up and around the side of the pond. We found this pretty stone archway along the path.

I don't know what the green stuff covering the water was...algae maybe or seeds from the trees? Not sure, but it was pretty.

So there were tons of turtles swimming around in the water. It was so fun to just sit and watch their little heads bob up and down on the surface of the water. I was hoping one would come close enough to get a good picture, but this is the best I could get. I promise the little spot in the center of the picture is a turtle.

It was such a peaceful and relaxing place. There was a lady playing classical music on the violin near the bridge we were on. Sitting in the shade, watching the row boats and turtles and listening to the music was great.

We could see lots of air bubbles breaking the surface around these lily pads from the turtles underneath the water.

It was such a fun day just hanging out with Brian. Life has been kind of crazy the last little while with our trip to Idaho, work and just trying to get back into our regular routine. It was nice to take a day and spend some quality time together relaxing. I know I've said this before, but discovering and exploring new places and learning new things are some of our most favorite things to do together. Saturday, we got to do both!