The End

Tomorrow all of my traveling comes to an end and I fly back to Champaign, so this is the very last bugaboo post. There are no more museums to visit, and no more fossils to shapesnatch. Thanks to all of you who took the time to read along and post your advice and encouragement! I want to especially thank Pispu and her family for making my stay in Florence so wonderful, and Negro and Frida for looking after my plants and beans while I've been gone. Anyone within easy traveling distance from Champaign-Urbana are welcome to join us at the Embassy tomorrow night for reunion beers (of course, if any of you long distance folks want to come too, you're always welcome!)

I'm going to be sad to leave New York. I really like this city. I've had some time over the last few days to wander around and explore. Here's a shot of Manhattan taken from the Staten Island Ferry:



If you come to NYC, you should definitely take this ferry to Staten Island & back. It's totally free, and you get a nice view of Manhattan, Brooklyn, and the Statue of Liberty from the water.

Here's a small 911 memorial I walked by in the West Village:







On Wednesday night I met up with an old friend from Champaign. Some of you may recognize Ertan (seen here with Mrs. Ertan):



He's originally from Turkey, but now he's living in NYC and working as an architect. It was really great to see him again, meet the wife for the first time, and catch up on each other's lives.

Yesterday, I met up with my friend Peter at the AMNH. We got there late so we only had time to explore one floor of the museum, but we did make it into the butterfly conservatory.



One landed on my head and stayed with me for almost 20 minutes :)



The butterfly ladies in the conservatory told me that this was a sign of good luck. It really tickled when it flapped its wings.



After the museum, Peter took me to one of his favourite bars in the Village. It was a really pretty little place with great people-watching opportunities and very good drinks. I felt very sophisticated sitting there with my blue cocktail ;)



I wish I had it in me to appreciate a classic martini but, alas, I'm a big wimp and can only tolerate the more girly, candy-like ones.

Later today we're going to explore the MOMA (free on Fridays between 4-8pm) and go see another play after that (we won the ticket lottery for Avenue Q on Tuesday night and got 2 front-row tickets for only $20 each. Very cool.)

I'm going to end this blog with a lovely photo of Central Park I took yesterday afternoon.



Bye-bye boos.

NYC

Hello all. Sorry for the long delay between posts.

Well, I've made it to the very last stop on my Grand Shapesnatching Tour. I came to New York to ShapeCam some casts at the American Museum of Natural History, seen here:



Everything at the museum went really well, and I was able to fill in some leftover blanks in my sample. Very happy about that. Also happy that I can finally exhale now because no equipment exploded on this trip, I didn't get my camera stolen by Belgians, and I still have a little credit left on my visa card ;)

Remember what I said about Vienna in December? That I could totally live there and be happy forever? Um, could I scratch that and substitute NYC instead? This city is amazing. I've been here before, but that was approx 15 years ago and almost another lifetime. Let's all live here in NYC together and play in the parks, walk across the bridges, gawk at all the interestingness on the streets, and hang out in cool cafes. Okay? It'd be fun. I promise. (But what's with all the Starbucks everywhere? There's one at almost every corner. It's worse than Tim Horton's in Canada. Seriously.)

Up until today, the weather has been really great. Saturday was sunny and really warm, no jacket needed. At first I felt guilty about enjoying all the global warmth, but I've since been reassured that it's not necessarily a sign of environmental doom. Hope that's true.

Views from Battery Park:





Cool sculpture outside of Trinity Church:



The Dakota building for Rachel:



View of Manhattan from the Brooklyn Bridge:



A wedding on Brooklyn Bridge:



Sunset over the Statue of Liberty:



Lincoln Center at night:



Prospect Park in Park Slope, Brooklyn:



Central Park after today's rain finally stopped:



Today Ivanka Trump walked past me on the street. She's really tall, but she looked very unhappy. Maybe it was because everyone was staring at her. That must suck. I felt bad for her, but then I remembered how rich she is, and that she gets to live here and go shopping whenever and wherever she wants. Thinking that made me want to go shopping. (Yeah, ok, it really doesn't take much to make me want to go shopping ;) Sigh. I guess there's a good reason I only have a little credit left on my visa card...