Monday, March 31, 2008

Spring Break

So if we've been on vacation for the last week, why do I feel a sense of freedom today?

Seriously, I find vacations challenging these days. While I love not being a slave to the alarm clock, the lack of routine is deadly for me. I made it to the gym three times, and we went to the Natural History Museum in NYC on Wednesday, but other than that, I think I accomplished nothing besides the most basic of household chores.

We did have a lovely time at the Museum. I was pleasantly surprised at the crowds, or relative lack thereof compared to Washington DC last year at spring break. We took the train in with friends, so our travel took longer than it might have, but the kids seemed to enjoy riding the train for the most part. We got to the muesum about 30 minutes before it opened, but then we had pre-bought tickets and just had to pick them up, so not really any lines to wait in.

Our only mistake was really the number of people. While it's fun to go with friends, logistically it gets more complicated as you add more people. We were up to 9, so it did seem like we spent a little more time than we might have just discussing what to do next. The only shows we did were the Butterfly Exhibit, where you walk through an enclosure with hundreds of butterflies (including an Atlas Moth! Wow!) and the IMAX film Dinosaurs Alive!, which I thought was less thrilling for the kids than we expected. And we still only got through maybe half of the museum.

So we'll go back, sometime in the not-too-distant future. William thought the big snake skeleton was "awesome!" and there was a whole hall of dinosaurs we missed. JC wanted to see the Big Bang movie in the worst way, and Rachel wanted to find the t-rex skeleton from the movie "Night at the Museum". So now that I've done it once, it's a lot easier to figure out how to do it again.

So here's some info on the Atlas Moth for you. It really was bigger than my hands, and I was grateful it was not flying around but resting on the ceiling.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Attacus_atlas

1 comment:

Susan Z said...

I always find that I have trouble transitioning between having a schedule and not having a schedule..therefore one week vacations are killer because I don't get enough time to transition either way. Sounds like you were busy but had fun.