Saturday, Darren and I spent the day in the city with my brother, sister-in-law and our nieces. My oldest niece is infatuated with New York City and recently discovered the American Museum of Natural History. After spending last Friday night at the museum with her girl scout troop, all she wanted to do was see what she missed first time around and to show everyone what she did and where she slept. She was unbelievably enthusiastic about her experience and couldn’t wait to return with us all in tow so she could show us around. Fortunate for all of us I was able to get our admission tickets comped through work so we didn’t have to wait on line. Within minutes of our arrival we were in the mammal exhibits. We started with the African mammals which were so life like. I’ve been talking about going on a safari for a while now and given that Darren is not very interestedl, he suggested I take it all in as that would be my safari…ha! ha! From the African Mammals, we headed to the Central American and North American Mammals, to the Whale Room, and eventually to the top floor where all the dinosaur bones are. The fossils were definitely my favorite but our nieces thought Easter Island Man from the movie Night at the Museum was the highlight of the visit. It was really cute to see the museum through their eyes. I hadn’t been there in years, nor had Darren, so it was really enjoyable to experience the exhibits as an adult and appreciate them on a different level than when we were there as kids.

The museum is open daily from 10am to 5:45pm and really worth a visit. It is conveniently located on the B,C subway lines at 81st and Central Park West. Depending on your love of natural history, you can certainly make a day of it there or you can spend a few hours seeing the highlights. The Planetarium and IMAX show are big draws as well. We didn’t make it to those as after 3 hours the little ‘troops’ were exhausted but they should be missed.