Gawking at an Easter Island Head, Eating Baby Octopus, and Learning I Can Tour the U.N.

First of all, I just want to reiterate: I’m going to see "Harry Potter and the Cursed Child" this week!

See this morning’s post for details on my second-row seats for Thursday and Friday. I’m sooooo excited! If we could just skip the next three days, that’d be great.

But back to today's adventure, when I headed to the American Museum of Natural History beside Central Park.

I knew this museum was a multi-dayer even before I saw it in real life, as it spans four city blocks! Fortunately, I get in free with my New York Times badge, so it lends itself to multiple visits.

Today I explored the second, third, and fourth floors, and I’ll come back another day to check out the first floor, lower level, and planetarium. This museum is SO much better than the Natural History Museum in London. I didn't have high hopes because of my experience with the London museum, which was the only one I visited in England that I didn’t care for (I found it juvenile, and kids were clearly the target audience). Not so here.

Like most museums here, the best stuff is on the upper levels, so I strategically worked my way down. Some of my favorite areas were the exhibits on indigenous people and cultures, especially the Hall of Pacific Peoples and Hall of Mexico and Central America.

I also spent nearly two hours on the fourth floor tracing the evolutionary history of species from dinos to mammals to vertebrates. It was all so fascinating, and I wanted to read everything (I am a strong museum person).

Here are a few of my favorite tidbits:

Imagine having teeth protruding through your skull! (shudders)

Oh, dear. If an elephant runs out of teeth, it starves to death because it can’t chew anything!

Someone get these guys Pedialyte!

Get you horns that can do both.

Komodo dragons are savage.

Don’t mess with that tongue.

I bought a replica Easter Island head for my desk back in Indy – the gift shop was surprisingly affordable (this dude was $10, and he isn’t tiny, either).

After being kicked out the museum (yes, I stayed until it closed), I walked along 79th Street to check out Banksy’s “Hammer Boy” in the wild on the side of the Designer Shoe Warehouse building.

I also did some souvenir shopping before heading home. I’ve mastered which shops are actually cheap, and which are price-gougers (just avoid everything in Times Square, basically – sometimes they charge $20 more for an item!). But there are some deals to be had in shops outside Midtown, and you can safely assume I’ve now bought at least one thing – sometimes multiple things – for everyone in my family.

I geeked out on the way home upon walking by Waverly Place and realizing that ‘Hey, Wizards of Waverly Place is set in my neighborhood!’ Now I’m definitely going to need a rewatch.

In other news, I learned today that you can tour the United Nations Headquarters in New York if you register far enough in advance and no Head of State suddenly decides to visit. SIGN ME UP. (I just need to delay this until one of the upcoming weeks when I work the night shift because they only offer tours Monday through Friday from 9 to 5).

And finally, your daily food adventure, this time brought to you by my neighborhood supermarket. May I present: Baby octopus from Peru!

Weird? Yes. Wonderful? Yes.