Metropolitan Museum of Art

The Met. It was so awesome. You could spend days in there and still probably not see everything. We had to pick and choose what we wanted to see. They had a whole floor dedicated to the art of fashion. (We skipped that) But they had a whole wing dedicated to Egyptian artifacts which was pretty amazing. I've always been interested in that stuff ever since I was little. There was one point when I actually considered being an archaeologist (my spell check worked!)-admittedly probably around the time I saw my first Indiana Jones movie, but when I looked into the realities of it (long periods of time with no air conditioning, showers, or toilets, plus they don't make very much money and can go YEARS without finding anything, and there are bugs) I was put off slightly. Still I fantasized about being the first person to see this stuff in thousands of years while looking at it on display. The Met has more Egyptian artifacts than anywhere in the world, except the museum in Cairo. That is awesome. It even has a whole temple in there. (the picture of John). I guess the story goes that they were going to build a dam and it would have flooded the area with this particular temple, and since the USA had been donating generously to helping preserve this stuff, they donated the whole temple to us. There was a whole room dedicated to recreating the site. It was pretty neat. I also thought the 200 year old graffiti was funny.

I think that picture says "Leonardo 1820" There was a bunch of that sadly. Just goes to show that the times may change, but people don't. After this we had lunch. In the nicer months you can eat out on a terrace outside overlooking Central Park, but as this was February, they have this cafeteria in the basement. It was cafeteria style, but not your average cafeteria fare. Then we went and saw all the masterpieces. It was pretty surreal seeing this stuff first hand. Monet, Degas, Picasso, Rembrandt, the list is endless. I took some pictures, then ended up buying a book cause I knew any picture I could take wouldn't do it justice. My pictures also have that blurry spot in the corner and the book gives details (names, dates, other interesting facts). I also bought a set of magnets of famous paintings. John has an aunt who has a whole masterpiece painting collection in magnets on her fridge. She seriously has like a hundred. I'd have to clean off all the junk off my fridge to do that, but she's been working on her collection for years, so I figured I have time.

They also have whole rooms totally done up and furnished like they were back in the 1800's in England. (actually older, I am sure. I should check my facts on this, I do have a book downstairs.) I mention this only because on the plane to New York I started reading this new series that is pretty much "Pride and Prejudice" told from Mr Darcy's point of view, So to me I felt like I was Elizabeth Bennet touring Pemberley for the first time they way the commoner folk used to tour the grand estates to see how the other half lived. I loved it. I'm pretty sure John would have skipped that part for something he found more interesting, but there you have it. We also walked through the modern art wing just for fun. We are SO not modern art people. I had to keep a straight face when I walked by this group of people discussing some picture that looked like paint splatter. It was so totally stereotypically modern art and the people discussing it added to the stereotypical-ness of it all. It was all very laughable from my clue-less, modern art-uneducated point of view. So totally worth the $20 suggested donation. (apparently you can tell them to stuff their suggested donation, but you have to at least donate something. )