American Museum of Natural History

Today we went to the American Museum of Natural History and let me just say that it is the most amazing museum I've ever been to and definitely one of the coolest things I've done here in New York. We took the train to 81st street (in the Upper West Side) and the station there is amazing...Because the museum is right next to the subway, the station walls are decorated with amazing mosaics...
This frog was my favorite, you can click on the photo to see it larger...Another perk of working at Sony is the discounts I get when I show my ID. Me and five guests can get into most of the bigger museums in the city for free (including this one). Here is the main lobby...We explored the museum from the ground up, starting with the First Floor. The first exhibit we saw was the "Hall of Biodiversity"...Next was the "North American Forests" exhibit. This massive sequoia began growing in 500 A.D. and was cut down around 1900...The amazing dioramas are definitely the highlights of the museum. This was one of the first dioramas that we saw...The next exhibit was the hall of "Northwest Coast Indians" which featured huge, intricate totem poles...The hall of "North American Mammals" is pretty self-explanatory and reminds me of Cabela's...
Then it was on to the "Milstein Hall of Ocean Life." This was my favorite exhibit room (mostly because of the enormous whale hanging from the ceiling)...A diorama of some men(?) o' war...A diorama of ancient sea life...A dark and kind of spooky diorama of a whale eating a giant squid. This exhibit is featured in the movie The Squid and the Whale...The museum is not all animals, though. Next we explored the "Gottesman Hall of Planet Earth." This is a copper model of the Earth's geography...
The "Guggenheim Hall of Minerals" was amazing. Here is a huge chunk of California gold...
In one display case was a bunch of miniature figurines made out of various minerals. This citrine lion is only about an inch long...The mom pig is about an inch long, as well. So cute!...
I can't remember what this mineral is called, but I love this color...
This is the inside of an amethyst geode...Connected to the "Hall of Minerals" is the "Morgan Memorial of Gems." This exhibit was amazing. My camera didn't capture the colors very well, but this photo shows how massive some of the gems were. The top amethyst was about two inches wide...The second floor is home to the hall of "Asian Mammals." This is a pair of Asian elephants...
A diorama of tigers...Also on the second floors is the "Akeley Hall of African Mammals." It's pretty much like a zoo, but the animals are never hiding or pooping...The third floor features the "Margaret Mead Hall of Pacific Peoples" which houses an Easter Island statue...The fourth (and last) floor is where the dinosaur exhibits are...
We were at the museum for four hours, didn't stop to read very many placards and we still didn't get to see all of the exhibits. Needless to say, we were very hungry after our visit, so we headed up to West Harlem to eat at an acclaimed BBQ restaurant called Dinosaur Bar-B-Que...The streets get a little weird up in that neighborhood, so we got a little lost on the way to the restaurant. Then, unfortunately, when we finally got there, there was a 1.5 hour wait. But we were finally seated and promptly got our food. I tried the ribs with coleslaw and baked beans. The presentation, as you can see, was nothing special, but the ribs were really good and the baked beans were weird, but delicious (they tasted like they may have had anise in them)...Pat had a pulled pork sandwich with a wedge salad and Syracuse Style Salt Potatoes. I tried the salt potatoes which were awesome and Pat said the rest was really good...For dessert we got an apple and cranberry cobbler a la mode. It was really good...All in all, Dinosaur was good, but not the best BBQ I've ever had.  It was worth the wait, though, because the prices were good and it was pretty much the only good meat we've had since we've been here. I'd go back to the museum, but probably not to Dinosaur...