Adventures in the Big Apple, part 2

I went back to New York in April. This time with just Marlowe, which I admit I find rather challenging, because at 23 months, he was a wiggly, curious boy. But we made it there, and met up with my MIL who was in town all week with a trade show for work. We stayed the night with her in her hotel room on Times Square. She took us to eat at a delicious restaurant, that wasn't kid-oriented at all. And Marlowe did superbly well. Then we went to M&M World. By then, it was pretty late, and Marlowe was sitting in his stroller in a daze. We had been there for about 10 minutes, when he, all of a sudden, realized where we were, and said "please! please!!"

The next morning, Grammy returned to her trade show, and I took the occasion to do something I've been meaning to do for awhile: visit the Cloisters, the medieval museum of the Met. They're a little ways away, so I've always been reticent to get on a subway for 30+ mins after an hour and a half train ride. So it was nice to use the opportunity of being able to spend the night to get a fresh start. So we got on at 42d St and got off at 190th St by a fun playground and a beautiful park full of flowering trees overlooking the Hudson River. I walked under the warm sun along the path and came upon the Cloisters, its towers peaking through the trees.

This is built to look like a medieval fortress/castle/thingy, with huge chunks of building imported from Europe. Inside are several medieval artifacts, art, tapestries, bits of buildings/architecture (e.g. there's a gothic chapel, a romanesque chapel), and, of course, cloisters, which surround beautiful gardens that are based on medieval gardens. I love historic gardens. It's like all the bits of me all tied up in one. I emailed my dad, who is a horticulturalist, and said, "look, a bit of me and a bit of you!" Anyway, it was also exciting to have gardens in a medieval museum, since they figure so prominently in medieval art and literature.

I really wanted to go to the Cloisters, but wondered how M would do. But remember my policy, incorporate the kid. As a result, I never realized how many lions and dogs are part of medieval art. We roared and barked our way through the museum. Especially exciting was the Lady and the Unicorn tapestries, which have a lot of dogs and rabbits.

We bought overpriced coffee and cookie and enjoyed the sunshine. And then made our way back to the subway via the playground.