Day 6 - The Guggenheim and Chelsea

Our last day... one last museum on my list for this trip.  We headed uptown toward Central Park (again) to see the Guggenheim.  As we arrived there was a film crew on the corner getting ready to film something... not sure if it was a movie or what but we hurried on past to get out of their way.

Once we got inside we were told that the ramps were closed while they were setting up for their upcoming exhibit.  It was a disappointment but we were able to see many of the pieces at a distance as they were placing them along the walls.

We still were able to see Motherwell's early collages.  

Lasting Images installations

and Kandinsky In Paris 1934 - 1944

Add caption

We took the subway and headed south to Chelsea where there were many art galleries listed in our travel book, but we should have looked more closely.  We might have seen that they were all closed on Monday.  It's ok, though.  We still enjoyed walking around and I even found this really unusual car park (pictured below).  Since parking in NYC is at a premium, there are these vertical parking decks where you can rent a space by the month.  I was fascinated, wondering how they got the cars in and out of there.  I'm going to keep it a secret and let you use your google skills to find out for yourself.

We had skipped lunch so we had an early dinner at Bubba Gump Shrimp.  I had a burger.

We then spent the rest of the evening running around Midtown while I posed in front of all of the tourist spots, just so we could make sure we had the photos of the various places.

Times Square

Fox News

Fox News - with Bill O'Reilly

Rockefeller Plaza's Ice Skating Rink

Rockefeller's Atlas Statue across from
St. Patrick's Cathedral

MOMA by Moonlight

Now, biggify the photo below and see if you can find me in this Times Square crowd!!

In the spirit of "Where's Waldo?" ..... Where's Kathy??  

There is still much of the city that we didn't explore and art exhibits are changing every month.  I have to say, all in all, the trip was great!  The city is a fun place to visit and believe it or not, I'm looking forward to going back!  

Our Great Adventure - Day 1

Our first morning we awoke to cheers in addition to the common sounds of traffic with sirens and horns honking.  Across from our hotel was the ABC Studios where Good Morning America broadcasts each morning live from Times Square.  There was the television crew and the crowd surrounding the hosts.  The traffic was blocked off so that the show could be telecast without anyone being hit by a taxi flying along at 60 mph.  Below are the daytime views from our room.

ABC Studio is directly beneath the green sign

One of the things that allowed me to look forward to the trip to NY was the fact that they had so many wonderful art museums.  Now I really love art but my brain can only process so much at once so my trusty Tour Director had us scheduled for a museum every-other-day.  This would give us time to reflect and digest all of this fabulous art!

Our first stop would be MOMA (Museum of Modern Art).  After waiting in a short line, we managed to get inside by 10:30.  There was a Magritte exhibit going on so we headed to the special exhibit gallery first thing.  

\\

Below are my favorites from the show.....

I love this self portrait

We decided to have an early lunch on the outdoor balcony (we had a delicious quinoa and chickpea salad, very healthy choice) and they served Randy this NY sized Coke (thanks Mayor Bloomberg for protecting us from ourselves). It must have held all of 8 ounces.

After lunch we hit the Impressionists hard.  First in the gallery was this little Gauguin lovely... 

We spent hours enjoying work by Cezanne, Seurat, Van Gogh, Picasso, Miro, oh my gosh, the list goes on and on.  As much good art as we saw, I've just got to share this.... 

Look at the two above pieces.  Biggify them so that you get a really good look.  How much time and effort do you think went in to the execution of each of them?  Let me just say that the one on the right insults and offends me, yet it is still art and hangs in a museum.  Go figure! 

We continued on to see Pollock, Picasso, Rothko, Matisse, Kandinsky, and finally a room of Monet's waterlilies (some of my personal favorites).  By this time we were feeling worn out.  The slow walking and sensory overload was taking its toll because we had been looking at art for about 4 hours. 

We were almost ready to leave when we saw that there was also an Edward Hopper and Georgia O'Keefe exhibit (another couple of my favorites) so we headed for that. The exhibit was small and included some of Stieglitz's photos of O'Keefe.  We were also able to see some photography by Edward Weston.     

Edward Hopper

By now we were dead on our feet and I knew that we had a HUGE day of walking ahead of us the next day so we headed back to our hotel to rest before dinner.  

Dinner.... oh, my!  It was a wonderful treat!  We ate at  Carmine's!  We had been warned that it was "family style" so we only had Chicken Parmesan and linguini with bread.  It was out of this world and there was enough left over for 2 more people!  We couldn't even hold dessert!

What a great time so far and I couldn't wait until the next day!