Travel Diary

On Monday, I checked out. I was going to have a word with them about my delayed check in on Saturday; however, they informed me that because of the issue, they would waive the $50 hotel fee. And that was fine, though they could have waived the cost of one night since really, I didn’t get to use my room for the first eight hours. Maybe a third of the price should have been dropped. No matter. It isn’t a bad hotel (outside from that experience) but the room had no fridge AND no coffee maker. It just didn’t warrant the high costs, especially when my previous hotel was just a nice for a lower price.

I wanted to visit the MOMA to mainly see “The Starry Night” (apparently, it starts with “The”—learned something new!) but the place didn’t open until 1pm for non-members. I could pay more to become a member, but really, I knew I’d only be there maybe once a year at the most, so it didn’t seem like a good deal for me.

I just headed out and figured I would return later. I then walked up to Central Park again and passed by the zoo. Hmm. I had never been inside the Central Park Zoo and did want to see the Red Pandas, so I bought a ticket and went inside. It’s not a very large zoo by any means, but there are some great exhibits. The pandas of course are the big item and I was there for quite some time taking photos. At that point, I definitely missed having a zoom camera.

Then I was off to see the snow leopards, but they were out of sight most of the time. Then it was the bird aviary, which was really fun. I recognized many of the parrots, but there were numerous other species I’d never seen before. Definitely a place worth checking out. After that, I saw the penguins and then the sea lions.

But I had time so I returned to the pandas a little more to see if they would be any closer. Not really. I then hit the leopard area and did end up with better photos as they walked back and forth. One strange thing I noticed was that the observation area did not seem to have any real barrier or protection from the animals. Not sure how they keep tourists from becoming the leopards’ lunch for the day.

After that, I walked back to the MOMA (Museum of Modern Art, in case you were not catching the acronym). I already had my ticket, but then went upstairs to use the bathroom first. At that point, it led right into the exhibits. I never even presented my ticket. I imagine it’s not an issue there. I mean, how many people are really trying to steal their way into watching art exhibits. And anyway, I had paid for it already and wasn’t going to use it a second time.

“The Starry Night” was my first stop and yeah, it’s pretty impressive. I took photos, then observed it directly for a bit, then more photos and even some video. Just so cool to witness the painting first hand after hearing so much about it over the years.

After that one, I Googled what were some of the other famous works and located them one by one. The melting clocks by Dali was a neat one, though very small. And even some of the sculptures were wonderful exhibits. Normally, I’m not big on “modern art,” but this place had a great balance between something that took talent and something that a 3-year-old could come up with. Many pieces were just artistically sound and inventive. It’s a museum I will likely return to during a future trip to NYC.

Then it was time to get back to JFK. I took the trains once again and checked in. Happily, I did have an upgrade to first class on my flight home. They served a nice meal and snacks. I passed on the IPA as I did have to drive once back at SFO. Hours later, we landed and I drove home once again.