Museums

We only have 2-3 years here, and so much to see, so we really need to get to it.  Doug got a little bonus this week, which ended up being just enough to buy a membership to the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the American Museum of Natural History.  Now we can go for a year for free!  (Well not free, parking is $30 at least and it costs $8 to cross the bridge into the city, and believe it or not, that is the cheapest way to get to the city). 

The Museum in mind boggling just in its size.  Really it is bigger than I can comprehend.  It has more room dedicated to stairways than many museums have in total square footage. 

The museum has this terrific map for children, so we told Ian to point to something he wanted to see and we would go find it.
We first went to Egyptian wing to see some mummies, Ian was relieved that they didn't really wake up and wander around moaning, but did think that he wouldn't like to be around when they got resurrected. 

Then he picked a Rembrandt portrait on the totally other side of the museum.  On the way we came across this terrific painting.  Isn't that charming?

Then he picked the Greek wing, and we realized he was just picking the thing furthest from where we were, anyway I had to override him because on the way to the paintings I caught a glimpse of this:

The gold statue in the center is by Augustus Saint-Gaudens, and the archway on the right is designed by Louis Comfort Tiffany.  Had to go there.

On very few occasion something is so overwhelmingly beautiful I literally get weak in the knees.  I just sat on the edge of the fountain in the picture just to take it in. 

Here's a close up of the pillars

We spent all day between this museum and the museum of natural history, and just scratched the surface.  Can't wait to go back.