And This Beside

This is a very small portion of a continuous video showing at the Milstein Hall of Ocean Life.  I remember the video had its own ocean sound effects, but the microphone instead picked up the sounds of the hall's visitors.  The hall was like a cave with very good acoustics, so sounds easily echoed.

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Here are some more photos from the American Museum of Natural History.  This set was taken at the Milstein Hall of Ocean Life.  As you can see, it is a cavernous two-level hall, and the most striking thing about it is the luminous blue ceiling.  That large, cigar-shaped structure that can be seen in the photos of the ceiling is a replica of a blue whale suspended in mid-air.  The structure spans most of the length of the hall.

               

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This one's for you (and I hope you know who you are).  This was at one of the lobbies at the American Museum of Natural History.

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(Note:  Since Gmail seems to have botched my inline images, I am resending this using attachments.  Tsk, Gmail.)

Today I spent a fun day at the American Museum of Natural History.  Boy did I have a blast---the kind of blast that kids have at these kinds of places.  The things one encounters at this museum are exactly the kinds of things that inspired my imagination and awe when I was a kid, and it was good to feel that way again.  (If you knew my profession, that would seem like an odd statement from me, but actually it would be revealing, as it was to me.)  I have been to this museum once before and I didn't remember it to be this much fun then.  I think part of the reason is that I went alone this time and so had the benefit of being left to my own thoughts and musings and to my own insatiable curiosity which was uninhibited.  That and a few other things.

I pretty much spent the whole day there, from museum opening to closing times.  Lunch was from the museum's food court which had a decent salad bar.  It also had the expected fare of burgers, pizza, and hot dogs, but I went for the salad bar.  By that time I was really hungry since I had skipped breakfast.  My fare consisted of lettuce, artichokes, cherry tomatoes, strips of grilled chicken (a little dry), hard boiled egg, some roasted red potatoes, and just a little penne pasta.  These all went into a small plate and which weighed in at around $15 including the soda water.  There was also a selection of desserts which I skipped.  It was a little hard to find a seat since the place was full.  It's not really a place to hang out in, but where one eats in a hurry and then goes to see some more of the museum.  It was also pretty noisy.

The first photo shows the main lobby of the museum---the "Theodore Roosevelt Memorial Hall"---where one buys tickets.  (My Lumix has a fairly wide angle, but still not quite wide enough for really large dinosaurs.)  I snapped the photo right before I walked out the door.  The second photo is that of the display hall for the "North American Mammals" exhibit.  I'll post some more photos and musings when I get the chance.

   

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