SATURDAY!

Another weekend! Hooray! Slept in till 10 - oh blessed day.

Today I went to the American Museum of Natural History up on 79th street. It was AMAZING. There was so much to see! Some areas I went through quicker than others, but I at least saw every exhibit and that was my goal. I particularly liked their dinosaur exhibit. And the gemstone and mineral exhibits. So so pretty to look at.

I was there till about 4-4:30 and then wanted to leave because I needed to get back in time for this street fair that I wanted to attend. It ended at 6. I went home, got a quick snack, cooled down for a bit, and then left again. And I must say, I know the subway system here so well now. And I must look like I know what I'm doing and where I'm going because I had four people stop me today and ask for directions. And I could answer all of them too. BAM. I am no tourist anymore! Kidding. It's just nice to feel completely comfortable getting around. It seemed so daunting last year when I came here.

The street fair was supposedly this "Festival of the America's" with over 500 international boothes and what not. That wasn't really the case, but it was still fun. It spanned down 15 blocks. 55th-42nd. A lot of the boothes had the same things... I must have seen 20 boothes that had pocket watch necklaces. How are all these different people selling the exact same 'unique' item? Hmm... Anyway, the variety wasn't that great. I didn't need/want scarfs, or ugly sunglasses, or beads. It was just fun to stroll down and see what was there. I did buy a rock necklace for only $3 that I love. It looks like a piece of geode that's been polished and shined. I think it's quite neat. There were tons of different food vendors set up down this street fair that all smelled and looked delicious!

I would have taken more pictures outside when I was wandering around today, but now that I'm wandering alone, I feel weird taking pictures of everything outside. I feel like it draws attention to the fact that I'm a tourist. "Hey I'm alone and taking pictures! Yes, I am a tourist too!" So I just haven't taken as many today. Sorry! I wanted some of the outside of the museum, the street fair, and the streets in the upper west side, but I felt weird.

I took the subway back home again because I wasn't sure what I wanted to do yet with the rest of my day. And it was SO HOT out. It got uncomfortable quickly walking around just because you'd get hot and sweaty in no time. I ended up going down to Union Square later where I work and browsed through some of the clothing stores down there. I hate/love doing this. I love shopping, but I hate not having any money to buy something. And NY has the best clothes. BOO.

I went back home and ate dinner and spent the rest of the night blogging - including this post here. :) It's nice to finally relax after walking around literally all day. My feet are tired. I do hope this is good for my bad leg though! It will probably build up some muscle that I've lost. Or so I hope. All in all, it was a very enjoyable day today.

Walruses!

I love masks.

I think the goal here was to cause nightmares.

East India statue.

Dinosaur's in the rotunda!

T-rex!

Cute little Chinese dolls from the 1800's.

I forget the animal this came from.. some ancient sea creature.

An ancient armadillo! Look how big they used to be!

Triceratops!

A view of the street fair. The people waiting to cross the
street are kinda blocking the view here, but on either
side of the street you can see the booths that were lining it.