The Met

On Saturday we had our first proper adventure in a long while. We drove the two hours into Manhattan and spent the day with our good friends who live in the city. We spent hours in The Metropolitan Museum of Art and just scratched the surface of what was offered. We also took a break partway through the day to play at a fun playground in Central Park, right next to the museum. We ended the day eating tacos in a shop just big enough to hold our party of twelve.

This display held Egyptian Hieroglyphs and felt like we were in an old-school pyramid. You know, as opposed to the new-school pyramids.

More pictures from Egypt, plus a handy padded bar for tired patrons to lean on. Or climb on.

Peter and John stuck together all day. I know Peter had a ball, I hope John did as well.

Apparently this display is talked about in The Red Pyramid by Rick Riordan, a book that Peter has read several times and I have only read once and have thus forgotten the details to. When we walked in he said, "It's just like I pictured it!"

There was a lovey Chinese Garden that held these sweet shutters.

We ventured outside to eat and play. The kids all ran and enjoyed themselves immensely while the adults reveled in sitting and chatting. However, after we'd been there for awhile, Cooper came over and said he didn't feel well. His head hurt and he was sniffly. Bryan gave Cooper his grownup-sized sunglasses to help with his headache and Cooper sat nearby for the rest of the park visit. By the time we got home, Cooper was really sick. He missed Primary (he sat in the back of Priesthood while Bryan taught that class and I taught my Primary class) on Sunday as well as his penultimate day of school on Monday.

At least the shades looked cool.

Back inside the museum, we saw some very impressive armor.

And on our way to find the European paintings, I spotted this down a long hallway. I hadn't even known to look for it, but I was thrilled at its discovery! After spending the last few months reading about the American Revolution, this painting was a special treat for me.

Also, it's gigantic.

See?

We finally found the two Caravaggio paintings I'd been searching for, tucked into the European paintings section. After that, we all agreed that we were worn out and ready for dinner. However, there was one more display that Peter desperately wanted to see: Cleopatra's Needle, located outside the museum. So we took a little walk.

See the obelisk in the picture? That's Cleopatra's Needle. Its twin lives in London.

We then hiked ourselves over to an allergy-friendly Greek place that had zero seating. Deciding that was not an option, we moved a few doors down to this restaurant that touted itself as the best of San Franciscan cuisine, which had then been transplanted to NYC. That makes our adventure bi-coastal, right?

After walking back to our car, we made one last pit stop at the museum.

We ended our fun day by driving through the Lincoln Tunnel for the first time (our previous visits took us across the George Washington Bridge) and a quick pass through Weehawken, NJ, notable as the location for the disastrous duel between Aaron Burr and Alexander Hamilton.

We had a great day and loved seeing our friends!