Whirlwind Trip to NYC Day 2: The American Museum of Natural History to Times Square

I tried really hard to confine myself to only one museum on this whirlwind trip. Mind you, I could spend every day of the rest of my life in a different museum and be as happy as a Mercenaria mercenaria, but I'm supposed to be practicing moderation in all things, sigh, so I picked only one museum--the very, very large American Museum of Natural History--and planned to spend only one day--a very, very, VERY long day!--there.

I also managed to pick the very stupidest way to get there, because just because Google Maps includes subway routes doesn't mean they have to make sense, and I managed to turn the exact wrong way upon leaving the subway station, which is my absolute biggest pet peeve, grrr. But finally, passing three playgrounds and a farmer's market and two different Covid testing/vaccination stations, we made it!

Or rather, we made it into the line that extended from the entrance, down the stairs, around a corner, and past the building. And that WAS the line for our reserved tickets! We provided plenty of entertainment for the passersby who felt pretty happily smug that THEY weren't the ones in such a long line, and one guy smirkingly informed us as he passed that we'd still be in line at 4:00 pm, but joke's on him, because it took exactly 41 minutes until it was our turn to show our vaccination cards (the NYC Covid Safe app is the best thing EVER!) and tickets and get sent into natural history heaven.

I don't so much love the hands-on science museums that I've spent the kids' entire lives shuttling them to and from, it seems, but give me an old-school set of exhibits like the Hall of African Mammals and I. Am. SET! 

And OMG they have dinosaurs!

You guys, that's a Barnum Brown Tyrannosaurus rex! Here's me being... not real chill about the first complete T. rex skull, also collected by Brown:

Here's the beautiful Allosaurus:

And the Apatosaurus!

It's walking on an excavation of the Glen Rose Trackway. When I was an undergrad way back forever ago, my university was in driving distance of several fascinating fossil sites, and I'd often make a day trip to hang out in the Glen Rose Formation instead of writing my English Lit essays.

I would have told you back then that I had zero interest in science, too! Self-knowledge has never been part of my skill set...

Syd and I hadn't eaten breakfast, so she and I took a break after this to brave the crowded cafeteria while Will and Matt visited another hall. As soon as we sat down, though, I texted Matt that there were free refills on the fountain drinks, and we'd bought a cup(!!!), and mysteriously, even though they hadn't been at all hungry or thirsty when we separated, they both showed up in minutes and helped us do our part to get our money's worth on our five-dollar drink cup.

Ahem.

So, I did have one ulterior motive for visiting the American Museum of Natural History as opposed to, say, the MOMA. The kids and I are studying Meso-American history, geography, and culture this year, and the AMNH has an excellent Hall of Mexico and Central America. 

This is a votive adze, a ceremonial piece made of jade and probably of Olmec creation. Fun fact: the Olmec produced a LOT of art depicting were-jaguars, and this is likely one of them!

This mask is currently the only known Olmec object made of wood. You can see bits of a jade mosaic that was added to it in some post-Olmec time:

At almost six feet, this is a life-size plaster replica of an Olmec monument that's thought to be the portrait of a leader. You'll be pleased to know that the original is home in Xalapa, Veracruz:

This is an Aztec sculpture. This type of figure, with that one hand raised, has also been found in several other Aztec sites:

This is a clay funeral urn from Oaxaca, probably from around 200-550 AD. It was collected in 1904, and on the AMNH database you can see the original manuscript catalog for this and the other items in this hall. They're fascinating, because they're all handwritten (and why would you not use your most legible handwriting when writing a museum catalog?!?), and they make clear that provenance around this time was pretty fast and loose. One entry I looked at described some artifacts that came buried in a box full of dirt along with a skull! 

Here's another clay urn from the same site. When I was looking this one up in the AMNH database, I found a more updated catalog that described it as a product of the 1901 Loubat Expedition. I'm low-key interested in historic archeological expeditions (mainly because of how Wild West, unethical, and off-the-rails they could be), so I did some additional digging for info, and found a dissertation about the conflict between Mexican and American representation during these historic expeditions. 

Basically, for the Loubat Expedition, the AMNH made a contract with the government of Mexico, stating where they'd go and what they'd look for, etc. The AMNH had a guy, Marshall Seville, and the Mexican government had a guy, Leopoldo Batres. They were meant to work together in relative harmony, but Seville spends most of his written reports back to the AMNH bitching about Batres, and Batres spends most of his reports back to the Mexican government talking about all the cool stuff he was doing and, oh yeah, Seville was also present, I guess.

Here's a model of an Aztec stone depicting the date when the Aztecs won a bunch of really cool wars against likely unsuspecting outlying nations. We were sitting on a bench across from this stone, resting our feet, when a family walked by that contained my least-favorite travel persona: Man Who Loudly Explains Things. Man Who Loudly Explains Things proceeded to explain to his family about the Aztec calendar that predicts the end of the world (I gritted my teeth) and the Aztec ball game in which they sacrificed the losers to their gods (I gasped, whirled around to my own family, and exclaimed "That's not true!" while they reminded me that I'm supposed to shush in public). 

I mean, yes, people probably got sacrificed sometimes, but 1) we don't know nearly enough about these ancient nations to say with any kind of certainty what they did or didn't do, especially about something as emotionally charged as human sacrifice (I blame you entirely for this, Diego de Landa!), and 2) OBVIOUSLY they didn't always sacrifice the losers of this game, because it's a really difficult game! If you always sacrificed the losers, all the players would suck at it and you'd probably run out of them after too long, too.

Here's a replica of a 700s Maya Stela that's also thankfully still where it's supposed to be in Mexico.

This is a limestone slab from Guatemala circa 633. Check out that beautiful writing!

A lot of figurines like this one were found in graves on the Island of Jaina in Tabasco. They range from about 600-900 AD.

This is another clay Maya sculpture

The provenance for these little bowls is unclear, other than that they're circa 600-900 AD from Mexico. That little guy is emerging from a shell, though, which says something interesting to me about the Maya's relationship to the ocean.

Here's another figure from the same area with an uncertain provenance, although they think it's probably from Guatemala:

And here are some painted vases from the same period. Reading between the lines in the manuscript catalog, I get the idea that much of the early 1900s consisted of rich people donating artifacts of uncertain provenance, probably looted, bought on the black market, or otherwise illegally put into their possession. The AMNH said thanks, wrote down the little info about them that the donors could give, and popped them into their collections.

At one point I left the family so I could go find a bathroom (SO many refills of fountain lemonade!!!), and when Matt texted me much later to find out who'd abducted me and what they wanted for ransom, I was all, "Oh, right... I sort of ended up in the Hall of Meteorites instead?"

Side note: I'm going to pretend to the kids that the Chicxulub Crater is an important part of our Meso-America study because when we take our Girl Scout troop trip to Mexico, our ship will be sailing right over it!!!!! When we do, you'll find me standing on the deck screaming "SQUEE!!!!!"

This is the very, very, very beautiful Esquel meteorite, found in Argentina.

Eventually, I met up with everyone else in the Halls of Gems and Minerals. The kids really liked this exhibit, so we're going to do more with it this semester as part of Syd's geology study.

This is a 9-foot amethyst geode. It definitely beats out the quartz geodes that the kids and I collect while creek stomping!

This is an 838-pound stibnite, formed with spacious perfection in an underground cavern:

This is elbaite tourmaline from Brazil.

The afternoon is very much wearing away at this point, and here Will kind of lost her head a little. I had mentioned numerous times throughout the day that the AMNH is too big to see in one day, but it's not going anywhere, so we'll see what we can see in one day and then we'll come back another day to see some more. I encouraged Will to choose specific halls to visit, and for most of the day, she happily wandered from exhibit to exhibit, happy as a clam looking at every single display and reading every single word on every single label.

But her list of what she wanted to see kept growing longer, and the day kept growing shorter. The last two hours of our time in the museum mostly consisted of Will bolting frantically from one hall to another across the entire freaking museum from it to another equidistant from the first two, and also up three flights of stairs. Not gonna lie--Syd and I tapped out for a while and people watched on this here bench:

And then we tapped out some more and hit the gift shop. Somebody please buy me all these dino plushies please!

But then Will rushed past us muttering something about a life-sized model of a blue whale, and I was back on my feet.

Origami Christmas tree on the way there!

And, indeed, a life-size model of a blue whale! You can barely see Syd and Matt lying flat on their backs underneath it.

And then, since I was up again, we might as well go to a couple more dinosaur halls!

Mosasaur!!!!!

Found a random, beautiful view of Manhattan at sunset!

This beautiful mummy is my very favorite dinosaur, Edmontosaurus annectens! I own so many of your fossilized tendons, sweet Edmontosaurus!

Eventually, not even halfway through Will's list of THINGS SHE ABSOLUTELY MUST SEE OR SHE'LL SIMPLY DIE, the AMNH had the nerve to close!

Oh, well. Let's go see if Times Square is tacky!

Yep, it's tacky, all right! And now we can say we know that first-hand!

Okay, I am so disappointed that I don't think I can even talk about this, and I kind of want to vomit right now just thinking about it because emotions are tough, but before we went back to our AirBnb and ordered take-out pizza, we walked over to see how to get to Hadestown the next day.

Turns out we really will have to take the long way 'round to get there. Another time!

I continually reminded the kids to make memories of the cool NYC stuff that we were already getting used to, so here's your ubiquitous subway shot:

And here's Sylvia's, the super famous soul food restaurant across the street from our AirBnb!

I loved our AirBnb. LOVED it. However, I did not love it on this night, because it turns out that the seafood restaurant below us was having some kind of... rave, maybe? On a Sunday night? All I know is it was so loud that it vibrated the drinks in our glasses, and we had to shout to talk to each other, and it did not end until after 1:30, because it was still going when I finally fell asleep, the bed shaking to the rhythm of the DJ's sick beats.

Whirlwind Trip to NYC Day 1: Indiana to Harlem

I planned this Christmas trip to New York City back in August, when I was high off of two recent successful traveling adventures and naively confident that my days of having Covid ruin my plans were over.

I ought to know better, as I'm a Medievalist and every now and then I feel the urge to randomly tell people that the Black Death lasted upwards of five years. And if our trip had been planned to start just a day or two later I'd definitely have cancelled it myself, because the day we arrived in Grand Central Terminal was the day the news reports got big that apparently NYC was chock-full of Covid, and everywhere we went people were lined up for curbside Covid tests, and the thing that I most wanted to do in the city got cancelled because of Covid the literal day I planned to do it...

Ah, well. The kids, my partner, and I emerged safe and sound, and all have our negative Covid tests in hand to prove it.

And on the first day of our trip, we got to watch the sunrise from the sky!

We flew into Newark, primarily because in my limited experience I've found the TSA agents there to be ever so slightly less cruel than the TSA agents in JFK (Have I ever told you that I get "selectively screened" A LOT? Like, barring the time that a TSA agent put her hands into my literal underpants in front of everyone in the security line and I cried, it's more or less a family joke, and when my partner looked over at the Indy security checkpoint and saw a TSA agent swabbing the bottom of one of my socked feet he just rolled his eyes and got my bags off the belt for me, but nevertheless, it's the WORST and you bet I evaluate my airports based on the level of humiliation I've experienced there in the past). 

I bought round-trip tickets for us on the Coach USA airport shuttle, which let us off near Grand Central Terminal at something like 10:00 am. 

I actually bought an audio tour of Grand Central Terminal, thinking it would be a fun (for me!) way for us to kill a couple of hours, but honestly, it took us a couple of hours just to figure out how to buy the 7-Day Unlimited Metro Cards that I wanted (probably at least an hour of trying vending machine after vending machine, each time unable to figure out why it wanted to charge us hundreds of dollars for something that should be thirty-ish bucks each, only to finally read the words on the machine and notice that it sold TRAIN tickets, not SUBWAY tickets. And then the adventure trying to figure out where the subway ticket machines live!). As well, we definitely weren't used to how crowded Grand Central was (I mean!), so we mostly just gaped at the zodiac ceiling mural--

--fueled up at Doughnut Plant--

This is the Brooklyn Blackout, which is the most delicious doughnut I've ever eaten. Totally worth spilling coffee down the front of one of the two shirts I'd brought, leaving me with one shirt and a sweatshirt smelling vaguely of coffee for the rest of the trip because obviously I'm WAY too lazy to hand-wash a shirt on vacation!

--went up and around and out and around and in and across and down and FINALLY figured out where to buy the correct Metro Cards, and then headed out to wander. 

And look up!

Found the Chrysler building! 

Here's the charming path to the New York Public Library:

Apparently nobody else found this path as charming as I did, so here begins the typical NYC practice of my partner and the kids forging quickly ahead, looking neither up or about themselves to sightsee, turning their heads just every now and then to find me mosying twenty feet behind them and then waiting impatiently for me to catch up before forging ahead again.

We had our luggage with us so I didn't really want to go inside anywhere, and therefore we confined our visit this time to the outside of the New York Public Library.

My library-lovingest kid made the acquaintance of Patience and Fortitude--

This is before we upgraded to my current favorite COVID masks.

--and we assured them that we'd definitely come inside and tour the treasures on our next visit.

Fortunately, Bryant Park has lots to do outdoors in December!

We didn't ice skate. It's funny because there's so much to do in New York City, that everyone who visits can fill their time doing completely different things from everyone else who visits, so whenever I've told someone about our trip that person immediately starts peppering me with questions that relate to the stuff THEY'D do, like "Did you ice skate at Bryant Park? Did you climb the Empire State Building? Did you eat a hot dog from a cart?", and I'm all, "No, no, no...", making it sound like we just sat on our butts the whole trip. 

We have a puzzle with this fountain on it!

Browsing Bryant's Park's Winter Market was suitably festive, as was walking north on 5th Avenue while admiring the buildings and the window displays.

The Rockefeller Tree, though, was... a little underwhelming?

We decided it's TV's fault. They make the tree look absolutely massive, so when you see it in person, yes, it's absolutely massive, but not, like, the most massive thing ever? And it's in front of the genuinely massive Rockefeller Center, so really it can't compete.

The skating rink is genuinely charming, though.

The Christmas Balls Fountain is way less crowded and way more photogenic, in my humble opinion.

We were all getting really exhausted/really excited to check into our AirBnB by this time, so we walked to the Times Square subway station, passing Radio City Music Hall on the way.

By this time, I already knew that the Rockettes had just a few hours ago cancelled the rest of their performances for the entire season, and it gave me a sinking and unhappy feeling in my gut re. Covid and lockdowns and shows I had my heart set on and really, really, really didn't want to get cancelled...

The kid is on the lookout for a rat, which she desperately wants to see.

There were some quirks checking into our AirBnB--this is only the second time I've ever booked an AirBnB, and both times checking in has been quirky. Is this the norm?--but good lord, the place felt like heaven after getting up at 4:00 am and then hoofing it all over creation with our bags in tow. The Harlem neighborhood that it's in was so comparatively more quiet and peaceful than where we'd been battling for space with other tourists all day, it was roomy and comfy with a giant couch big enough for us all to sprawl simultaneously (something I now realize we absolutely need in our own home!), and best of all, the TV was already logged into someone else's Netflix account!

I'd kind of only meant us to stay long enough to unpack and buy some groceries, and I had a nebulous idea that we'd head out again, unburdened by our luggage, to do some more sightseeing, but a kid laid down on that couch and promptly fell asleep, so I figured we were more or less done for the day. 

Might as well take a shower, order some takeout, and see what's on Netflix!

P.S. Want to follow along with my craft projects, books I'm reading, road trips to weird old cemeteries, handmade homeschool high school studies, and other various adventures on the daily? Find me on my Craft Knife Facebook page!

How to Make a Display Board from Upcycled Girl Scout Cookie Cases

This tutorial was originally published on Crafting a Green World in 2017.

 Kids and their display boards, amiright? Science Fairs and History Fairs and Biography Fairs and 4-H presentations and I can't even imagine what else, just that it all requires a display board. 

 Years ago, I made the kids re-usable tri-fold display boards, some out of chalkboard and some out of dry erase board, and we LOVE them and use them for all of our academic fairs. We used them for two years of Girl Scout cookie booths, as well, but this year, with a super-motivated troop of Girl Scouts whose collective goal was to sell at multiple booths every weekend all season, I deeply desired something lighter and more portable, something a kid could easily carry three of at a time. The display would need to stand up independently but also fold flat for storage. Oh, and it had to be upcycled, because obviously. 

 Fortunately, I have LOADS of supplies available, what with the hundreds of Girl Scout cookie cases that are now in my house. This tutorial calls specifically for Girl Scout cookie cases, but you can substitute any type of shipping box that you have on hand, if you're creative with your modifications.

 You will need: 

  three Girl Scout cookie cases. It doesn't matter which type of cookie you use (I mention this because the box is a different size for each type of cookie), as long as you use at least two of the same type. 

If you don't know a Girl Scout, call your town's Girl Scout office or just pop by a Girl Scout cookie booth in progress and ask--they will undoubtedly be THRILLED to pawn off their empty cases on you so that they don't have to deal with them themselves! 

  duct tape. Duct tape isn't super eco-friendly, but it IS the best tool for this project. When you're ready to recycle your display board, pull the duct tape off and throw it away. 

  cutting mat and box knife. You don't even need a ruler for this project!  

1. Break down two Girl Scout cookie cases and overlap them. In the image above, you can see that I'm overlapping them about halfway across the flattened top flap. This is enough overlap to give the join strength, but I've avoided overlapping them at a fold to keep the display stable. Duct tape the join. 

 2. Cut off one flap. Decide which side of the display will be the front and which the back, and then cut off one of the flaps from the backside. Use your box knife to cut this flap in half, lengthwise, so that you've got two long tabs. Set them aside. 

 3. Flatten the third box, then duct tape the long sides of the flaps at one end together. Check out the image above for details--don't tape up the bottom! 

 4. Center the third box on the backside of the display board, aligning the crease line just above the flaps that you duct taped in Step 3 with the bottom of the display board. Take another look at the image for Step 3 to see what this looks like. Duct tape the top of this third box to the back of the display board, but only along the top side. Look at the above photo to see how I've taped across that join on both sides of the flattened box, then taped down to give it more security. This entire flattened box should now be able to work like a hinge. Fold the flattened box along that lower crease line until it's easy to do so. 

 5. Duct tape the tabs to the bottom of the display board. Center each tab on that flap from the third box that you've taped the sides of--the idea is that the tabs will insert into those flaps to stand the display board up. 

 Again, duct tape each tab on both sides to make each a hinge, then support each with another couple of pieces placed perpendicularly. These tabs will get a LOT of wear! To assemble the display board, insert each tab fully into its slot:

 Your display board should then stand up on its own!  The kids in my Girl Scout troop covered the front of each display board with newsprint, then decorated it to make their displays. 

This technique would work well for a one-time display, but the paper got torn up WAY before cookie season was over--although the display boards themselves are still going strong! Next year, I'll direct the kids to sturdier embellishing materials. Feel free to send me suggestions for what to use in the Comments below!

I Finally Learned How to Sew Zippers (and I Have the Zippered Bags to Prove It!)

 Look who finally taught herself a very basic sewing skill after nearly eighteen years of sewing!

Looking for some stocking stuffers that I could DIY for Matt and the teenagers, I hit upon some of the numerous tutorials for zippered bags that I've got Pinned. I've saved so many tutorials for bags, pouches, and cases of all kinds, and yet I rarely made any, because I was still scared of zippers!

Well, Friends, this was my year, and this was the tutorial that I used. I followed it even when I couldn't quite work out what it was leading up to, and behold! When I was finished, I had an only slightly wonky zippered pouch to show for it!

And then I made another, and it was less wonky.

And then another.

And then I just went ahead and cut out one for almost every single zipper that I've got in my stash. I have had those zippers for... so long, and although they were one hundred percent handed down to me from somewhere or another, I no longer remember ever remotely where they're from. 

Some of them were at least fifty years old, though, and still in their original packaging! I hadn't realized until reading that tutorial that cutting a stash zipper to the correct size was as easy as this--

--and this!

And look how much happier all those vintage zippers are to be in their new homes!

I also learned, for the first time, exactly how to use my zipper foot, and I figured out exactly how to handle that zipper pull. The trick to getting it past your needle is to raise the needle as high as you can while still keeping it in the fabric, and then raise your presser foot, too. The zipper pull will zip right by!

I managed to fussy cut the very last Nutcracker Prince and Mouse King battle scene from the fat quarter that I bought from Spoonflower and make Syd a zippered pouch to keep her masks safe in her ballet bag:

I used stash fabric for the rest. I hid these three away for Christmas stockings (can you figure out who got which bag?)--

--and I made a few extras for general use:

I am so good with zippers now, you guys, you're not even going to believe it. I'm off to find something else VERY zipper-heavy to sew!