Friday, September 17, 2010

AYCJ - Day 10 - New York New York

It's Day 10, Thursday, September 16 on my 30-day JetBlue All You Can Jet Travel Adventure. Today was Art and Italian food in New York.

I realize at this point in the trip that not only is my sleep schedule a bit confused, but my eating schedule is as well. When traveling one often does not eat the same foods one eats when home, so it will be interesting how 30 days of this works out. It's Day 10, one-third of the way through.

After sleeping in, at my friend Todd's place in Brooklyn, we both headed into Manhattan to MOMA (Museum of Modern Art). I was going to wait for "free day", which is Fridays after 4pm, but... Todd is a member, so I went as his guest and we enjoyed a wonderful Matisse exhibition. We walked around the entire museum, sat out in the Sculpture Garden for awhile, until the rains came. It was a big storm, wind, rain, and I heard that a tornado may have actually come through the city. We hid inside MOMA until it slowed to a drizzle.

About museums, I know some people don't think of going to museums when traveling, but what I like about them is that, if you're looking at an original painting or sculpture from a museum's collection, that is the only place you'll see that particular work. There are traveling exhibitions with works borrowed from other museums, but it's one of the few things left that is unique to a location. In most big cities, the major stores you see are all the same no matter what city you're in. It all looks like the same mall, no matter where you are. But Art and other Exhibits in local museums are mostly unique to that place, so that's why I enjoy finding interesting museums in new places.

In a museum, after walking around for awhile, you can get to information overload, where you're seen so much, it's hard to digest what you're looking at. At that point, I like to just keep walking and wander around the rest of the galleries, pausing when something catches my eye, for whatever reason. You can discover interesting works that way.

We walked around midtown, to the west side, and had Italian food at Amarone's on 9th Avenue. I love Italian food so it's always a good option for me. And a friend used to have his Christmas Eve dinners there when I lived in NYC, so I knew it would be good. Some pasta and wine, for a delicious end to a stormy day.

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