The Whitney, Met, and Empire St. Building

Thursday I took the Metro North Train to NY at 9:30am. The first thing I needed to do in NY was to buy a digital camera since the previous camera cracked. I went back to Best Buy and picked a good quality 10 Megapixel Nikon Coolpix camera for a good price. Fortunately the battery worked for the duration of the day without charging it any. After my purchase, I headed toward the Whitney Museum of American Art near Central Park. Made good time walking. At the museum I saw a Sadie Benning video piece, Dan Graham's glass sculptures that you can walk into, and the Music Room by Claes Oldenburg. My favorite piece in the Music Room was a bent clarinet sculpture that was painted blue and silver that rose around 10ft high. The Whitney is a not a huge museum so it was very manageable to experience it without rushing so much. After the Whitney I made my way up Madison and 5th Avenue to visit the Metropolitan. This is a massive art museum! Incredible displays of all kinds of artifacts from all over the world and various cultures. I saw the Burghers of Calais by August Rodin. The original cast is in Calais, but there have been other original casts and this is one of them at the Met. After taking art history with Dr. Wadley last fall and studying about Caravaggio and the Italian Ren., it was very special to see some of these paintings in person. After the Met. I decided to take a rest at Central Park. I found a good rock to lay on and relaxed for awhile! Then I headed back down 5th Avenue straight for the Empire State Building. Along the way, I stopped at an Italian restaurant and had a big piece of pizza and a $2.29 bottle water! Bottled water is very expensive in NY. It worked out good going to see the Empire Building later in the day when the sun was setting. Cost $18 for students. I didn't have to wait really long, but they do a security check on you and your belongings like at an airport. One elevator takes you up 80 floors and then another elevator takes you up 6 more. What an unbelievable sight to see Manhattan at 1,454 feet in the air when the city lights are beginning to shimmer. Of course, you can see East, West, North, and South, but it was very crowded and people were standing all along the fence railings. I was able to get some good shots with the camera. The price of paying to go up there was well worth it, and that was the highest I've ever been on a building. I left the top around 8:40pm. I took the train back to New Haven at 9:37pm. It was raining when I got off so I had to take my first taxi ride back to my dorm. It was another exhausting, but fun day in NY. Enjoy some of the pictures down below!