New York Trip, Part III

And this is the last.

I remembered my resolution as I was walking from the Natural History Museum to the temple not to be embarrassed about taking pictures. (I tend to be embarrassed no matter whether I'm on my home turf or not, if I'm in public.) So the next three are just cool iron gratings in front of buildings in streets which are quite close to the Manhattan LDS temple.

First, a couple more creatures-that-are-not-gargoyles:

Then, a cool piece of ironwork just below a window-- quite frankly, it reminded me of some of the cool ironwork in front of rowhouses that I see in Baltimore when I go up there:
 

In the afternoon, after I had gotten back to the hotel and Mom had finished her meetings for the day, we decided together to go to St. Patrick's Cathedral. This was beautiful and well-worth the visit, and also the light was dim enough that I'm going to have to send you off to the wide, wide internet again to find someone else's gorgeous pictures of the inside (or even the outside-- sorry).

We walked past the famous Rockefeller Center on the way back, with its skating rink. And then... as we passed a building... I saw a sign which I could not help taking a picture of, despite the deplorable lighting conditions. I squealed when I said, "MOM! LOOK!"
 
And I was a happy chica.

After I got back home, I told friends that I had heard that New York is awesome because it's big, but I came to the opposite conclusion: it's big because it's awesome. I actually found it to be, in a way, rather cozy. This is no doubt related to the fact that I took zero motorized transportation in the time I was there, and my own two feet carried me to enough cool places to make me rawther happy for one trip. I am super excited to go again, whenever that is. :)

New York Trip: Part II

With gargoyles. Well, one gargoyle-like creature, if it had served a different architectural purpose. You'll see. :)

I wasn't there very long; I couldn't take very long off of work. So, I got there on a Wednesday afternoon, then walked with Mom down to the main branch of New York Public Library-- which I didn't get any good pictures of, but happily for YOU it's famous, so you can just look some up online. (The outside has marble lions; the inside looks a lot like the Library of Congress, having been built in approximately the same era.)

The next morning, I walked ALL over Central Park-- well, over half of it anyway. I walked from Times Square, where the hotel was, up through the south end of the park and then up to approximately the middle (North-South wise). I had wanted to go to the Metropolitan Museum of New York, but it turned out that it didn't open until ten, and since I wanted to make it to the temple by ten thirty or so for an eleven o'clock session, well, all I ended up seeing was the outside of the museum. *sigh*

But that was not the end of the world. As I walked across the narrow side of Central Park to see if I could catch any of the Natural History Museum (of Night at the Museum fame), I happened to come across Belvedere Castle. This structure was originally-- and, to quote Dave Barry, I am not making this up-- called a "folly," which is a structure built mostly to look good, without having any other real purpose. (This is where I got that info: https://www.centralpark.com/things-to-do/attractions/belvedere-castle/) Anyway, it's still serving the purpose of looking decorative, while also serving as a weather station, having a tourist shop inside, and being a nature observatory, from which you can actually check out stuff like binoculars. (This last part I didn't know until just now-- more to do for my planned return this summer!) But none of that was open yet as I hiked my way through.

I did, however, get a picture of this lovely metal creature over the door:

I just looked up the definition of a gargoyle. This one doesn't count, because it's not part of a gutter. But you can't tell me it isn't cool!

Next, I walked to the Natural History Museum-- which, you guessed it, was still closed when I got there, though it was opening as I arrived. I decided to step inside, which meant letting a guard give my purse a glance, which I certainly didn't have a problem with. The great hall did have a dinosaur-bone replica, but other than that was empty of objects. It did, however, have a lovely quotes from T. Roosevelt on the walls, one of which I liked so much that I took a picture:

The part I most like says: IT IS HARD TO FAIL BUT IT IS WORSE TO HAVE NEVER TRIED TO SUCCEED. It felt quite relevant to my life as I looked at it. It feels quite relevant to my life, even now.