It was our last day in the Big Apple and we still had places we wanted to see.  First up:  the famed American Museum of Natural History.  I had been wanting to go since I was at least seven.  Of course Burk had been many times but he loves museums like I do so he was just as excited to go.  Built in 1869, it is one of the largest museums in the world.  I had no idea it was across from Central Park.  It houses over 32 million specimens of plants, humans, animals, fossils, minerals, rocks, meteorites, and human cultural artifacts.  Their mission statement is “to discover, interpret, and disseminate information about human cultures, the natural world, and the universe though a wide-ranging program of scientific research, education, and exhibition.”  The 63 foot-long canoe carved by the Haida Indians was nothing short of spectacular and the dinosaurs were more incredible than I had imagined.  Many were suspended from the ceiling in such as a way as to appear almost animated.  I didn’t have to lament their deaths because I knew they weren’t from any hunters’ guns so I was free to study and marvel at their size.  I felt a great deal of sadness for all the animals in the Theodore Roosevelt Hall of North American Mammals.  I understand the dioramas and taxidermy are skills; but those poor animals’ deaths in the name of preservation sickened me.  In the Hall of North American Forests we saw a slice of a giant sequoia dating back more than 1,400 years felled by lumberjacks in 1891.  It once stood more than 300 feet tall.  Thankfully, it is now illegal to cut them down.  After the museum we decided to do something a bit more light-hearted so we headed to the huge Toys-“R”-Us in Times Square.  We rode the 60 foot indoor ferris wheel where we got our picture taken and put in a magnet as a souvenir.  An ironic recap of our time in New York, we saw the LEGO Empire State Building, Broadway just outside the vast windows, and a huge animatronic T-Rex.  Next we had our final dinner in a now closed restaurant named Gino’s.  I had no earthly idea why zebras covered the red walls but I know they greeted Burk like he was a prince.  Always self-effacing, my sweet husband blushed under the attention as they proudly escorted us to our table.  This place was OLD school Italian and these men had known him since he was a little boy.  A man behind the bar came over to our table and, in a horrifying stage whisper, slapped Burk on the back congratulating him for marrying “such a beauty” and proceeded to extol the merits of doing so “before the bloom was off the rose.”  Burk was horrified and I vaguely considered telling the man I was on my way to being 38.  I kept thinking of “Beauty and the Beast” where there is one petal left on the rose — and it’s just about to fall.  But Burk’s father’s family had a long history with this place and I did not want to seem like some blue stocking feminist or harridan so I just smiled.  We had a lovely meal and I had their famous “salsa segreta” (secret sauce) which I suspect was a red vodka sauce mixed with some type of heavenly white cream sauce.  I’m so glad I got to go, as it was such a part of my husband’s past.  It saddens me that they have closed and we did not get to go back.  Swedish author Jan Myrdal said:

“Traveling is not just seeing the new; it is also leaving behind.  Not just opening doors; also closing them behind you, never to return.  But the place you have left forever is always there for you to see whenever you shut your eyes.”