The Museum of the City of New York

So Jon and I have been pretty good about getting out and about and doing things in New York to take advantage of all the city has to offer before we move to Hoboken in February!!! (I'll make sure to post a list and a quick breakdown of the things we've done that I haven't blogged about!) That's right we're moving to Jersey - it's official! We were going to buy a place but with everything going on in the economy we both agreed to rent for another year and let things settle down. I'm so excited to move to Hoboken because it's much smaller and more manageable than NYC, it is 1 mile by 1 mile, but yet it still has an urban feel. Also, my sis and her fiance live there, my cousin lives there, and one of our HC friends and his wife live there!!! I think it will be a good transition from URBAN life to SUBURBAN life - it's the perfect inbetween. While we'll still take advantage of being close to the city I don't want that to let me get complacent in enjoying some sightseeing now.

Sunday was OUR day so we decided to check out The Museum of the City of New York, which is on Fifth Avenue at 103rd Street. My mother LOVES this museum and she has been talking about it since we moved here (specifically the doll house exhibit) so I figured it was time to check it out. We are also currently watching New York: A Documentary by Ric Burns so we felt that while we're learning about NYC why not extend it some more.

I have to say that there were things I LOVED about this museum and things that just didn't make sense to me. I was expecting to go to this museum and learn a lot about the history of New York, that was not exactly the case. You learn about certain periods in NYC depending really on what the current exhibits they are hosting.

First for the permanent exhibits: The dollhouses!!! On the 3rd floor they have a whole toy section filled with toys that have been donated by NYC families that they played with as children. They run the gammet to being from the 1800's to being more present (as in things I can remember playing with - Monopoly, Lincoln Logs, etc). It is cool to see some handmade toys, to see some of the first dolls created, to see things that children played with back in the day (I'm a sucker for this kind of stuff). But the coolest section of all was all the elaborate doll houses. What girl as a child did not want a really amazing doll house to play with and these are the creme de la creme. Some of them were so exquisite and detail oriented I don't know that I could have played with them, but I LOVED looking at them. I am almost tempted to say that the museum is worth it just for this.

The other exhibit I really enjoyed was this small room of diaramas that depicted rooms from different time periods in NYC (I'm such a sucker for this kind of stuff too!) It's a small exhibit but enjoyable.

The other permanent exhibit is about trade in NYC and is all about ships, ports and different trades during different times in NYC history. There are a lot of model ships modeled after ships that might have been during the time and diagrams showing where the ports and piers were.

There was also a 22 minute video about the history of NYC, which was done by the same writer as the documentary we're currently watching. It is a great overview of the city and it's history and we watched this before we toured the museum and it was a great starting point.

The exhibits that were visiting I liked: Paris & New York, New York's role in Elections, and Catholicism in New York. These were all on the first floor. So I guess what I'm trying to say is that it all depends on when you go and what exhibits they have when you're there as to how enjoyable you'll find the museum. I definitely wouldn't put it in my top 5 but I do think it is a museum worth visiting if you're at all interested in things related to NYC.

After the museum we walked to 2nd Avenue between 86th and 85th to visit one of our fave German bars in NYC - Heidelberg New York. We had German beers and Jon enjoyed a salami stick. Then we moseyed on to JG Melon's on 3rd and 74th to partake in the best burgers in NYC!!! Boy are they good. It's a small crowded place with a lot of character and great food. We each got a burger with fries and a beer and enjoyed our early dinner.

Then it was time to head home...to watch the Patriots (who lost - boo!) and call it a night.

It was a great day in NYC!