New York City | Easter Trip | Museum of Natural History & Central Park

For Easter, Matthew and I took a spontaneous trip (planned late the night before) to New York City. The key to experiencing the most for any trip is actually doing less. Less running around means less stress and way more time for truly living in the moment. New York City is a big place, so for this trip we focused on seeing only two places; the Museum of Natural History and Central Park. That gave us time to really focus on where we were instead of racing out to the next location. It also gave us extra time to explore and make spontaneous stops along the way such as Rockefeller Center and the Barnes and Noble close to the ice rink.

We woke up early to take the train into Grand Central Station. (It really is a beautiful building. I love the constellations and little lights on the ceiling.)

 The architecture can be so gorgeous. All the Spring flowers were in bloom. People have such little space, but they really know how to make the most of a few feet of land for their mini gardens. 

It was an incredible ninety degrees outside! People filled every grassy surface of Central Park. Hundreds of people laid out on towels, wearing their bathing suits as if they were on the beach. It still amazes me that there are some people who have never left the city. There is certainly a lot to do in New York, but there is a whole big world out there, although at times New York seems like its own world.

We walked right through Central Park (and Shakespeare’s Garden) to the Museum on Natural History.

The size of the animals and wild life displayed at the Museum is incredible to behold. To be completely honest, it was a little tough seeing all the animals stuffed in the display cases, but for the most part it was beautifully done. I used to live close to the Smithsonian museums in Washington DC where they had very different types of displays. Some of the scenes in this New York museum looked like paintings.

Because we took the extra time to only see two places instead of overbooking our schedule, we had time to frolic with the butterflies. Real, live, fluttering butterflies!

This one really loved my ring! It hung on for a good ten minutes, rubbing the stone as if it were a flower it could take pollen from. I didn’t realize that a butterfly could show such frustration as it would not give up.

The butterflies were amazing and we were able to stay in there as long as we wanted to. Eventually we said goodbye to our new fluttering friends and went on to explore more of the museum. Matthew and I both agree that the dinosaur fossil exhibit is one of the best!

Back to Central Park, where we were caught up in a surprise rain shower right after our ice cream. We were completely soaked, but with the intense heat we dried off pretty fast. Afterwards we caught the metro into Rockefeller Center.

I love visiting cities. they’re exciting. I love the diversity, the mix of cultures, food, art, music, and fashion. There are so many museums, events, places to eat, and things to do. I can visit the city hundreds of times and always experience something new. But at the end of the day, I like having a quiet home base to return to, surrounded by nature.

Rockefeller Center was all decked out for Easter Sunday. I love the energy of Rockefeller Center. In a window display they had a miniaturized Lego version of the Center. Shortly after darkness fell we were back on the train home.

As always, wear comfy shoes when visiting any city because you’re bound to do a lot of walking. New Yorkers must go through a ton of shoes because at the end of my trip my new flats were pretty much done. Originally we had planned to see Lady Liberty on Easter, but the tickets were sold out until August. You guessed it, we booked our tickets for August! Matthew and I cannot wait to return to New York City for our next great adventure.