The Museum of Natural History

Of all of the years I lived in NYC when I graduated from grad school, I sadly never had a chance to go to the Museum of Natural History. I was busy working and hustling during the week and during weekends spending time commuting home to Boston. But I figured that it was ALWAYS there, and it was a major institution, so I thought I could go anytime! 8 years later, after moving back to Boston, getting married and having a three and a half year old who ADORES dinosaurs, we thought it was a perfect excuse to go while we were in the city.

And went we did. I wish we had more time to spend there - it's suggested donation, but if you can pay it I would to support the museum. I've never seen such an awe inspiring collection of works - it was so well done and well thought out, with fossils of every dinosaur you could imagine, from the well known Tyrannosaurus Rex, Triceratops, and Stegosaurus to the lesser known Allosaurus, Archaeopteryx, Dilophosaurus, Ceratosaurus, Pachycephalosaurus, and Styracosaurus as examples. Oh and Kasen brought a Ceratosaurus with him, so we naturally had to take a picture of it with the fossil specimen (they just had a head). Yes, my dino obsessed toddler is the reason why I know all of these things - he knows the names and the differences between all of them. They were also featuring the gargantuan Titanosaurus from Argentina, a relative of the Apatosaurus - the specimen was SO large that it didnt fit in the exhibit hall, with the head and part of the neck sticking out of the entry way! Ah, my future paleontologist. Lately he's been burying his dinosaurs in various blankets, and taking a hammer and saw and pretending to "unearth" the dinosaur fossils from them. Oh, my.