May 2013
It’s raining back home in Bombay.
When Subi and Reva were visiting, we took them to NYC. It was raining the day we got there. Not the damp, grey pitter-patter. Fresh green rains. Just like back home.
We took the hop on-hop off bus,and sat in the sheltered lower deck. Right outside the National Museum of Natural History, somewhere across Central Park, our bus bumped into a car. Our grumpy tour guide, shooed us off the bus, with ponchos ( read garbage bags with arm holes) to wear and a bunch of directions.
We wore our ponchos, and stepped into Central Par, laughing at how we looked. Walking along quite aimlessly, debating on what to do next, we chanced upon a little waffle cart. Once we had made a mess of our faces with the warm, chocolate topped waffles, and cleaned it up with rain water and paper napkins, we set off again. Just a little further was the turtle pond. The turtle pond, took us all by surprise. We never expected to see turtles swimming around in Central Park.
Our next stop was the National Museum of Natural History. This museum is not a part of the Smithsonian, which means, there is an entry fee. On entering, we overheard someone say, the last one hour is free. Since no one asked us for tickets, we figured it was true and marched right in. One hour is too little time to do justice to this beautiful museum. We missed the blue whale exhibit, that Barney broke when he was a kid, but we managed to run through Africa and South America.
There was another hop on-hop off bus waiting as we were getting out of the museum. Deciding that it was too dull to sit downstairs, we pulled on ponchos and bravely rode upper deck. The bus took us down the museum mile. Parks on one side, and stately buildings on the other; rain, wind and low hanging branches adding to the thrill, NYC never looked prettier. .
Half the Story 