American Museum of Natural History of NYC

It’s your first time to New York and you’re not sure what to do. Well, the list of activities is longer than 1,000 posts could do justice. But if you are fan of museums, might I recommend the American Museum of Natural History on 81st Street and Central Park West. Take the B/C train (orange or blue lines) to the 81 Street stop and enter there.

If you are a thrifty consumer, or even a frugal one, I have a bit of a trick for you. If you are entering the museum during a peak time—which is almost any time during the summer—play the crowds to your advantage. Pretend to stand on line in the self purchase lines off to the left from when you first walk in. After a little bit, turn and walk to the entrance on the far left. The guards rarely check your ticket, so if they see you waiting on line, they never check you. Then you are free to explore. The only problem with this is that you can’t see the featured exhibits that the museum has to offer. But there is still plenty to see.

I assume that you can guess what’s in a museum of natural history so I won’t bore you with repetitive details of what to see, but if you can, head to the biology section. Here, you can sit in a class room setting and perform a lab experiment, which had been a while for me, so it was interesting. You get to see your own DNA strands right in front of you. It’s kind of cool.

Anyway, after your exploration of knowledge and interest, I would recommend walking down Central Park West towards Columbus Circle. This walk is filled with entertaining scenery from nature to street entertainers. You can walk past the infamous Dakota, the building based around Jack Finney’s master novel "Time and Again" and the once home of former Beatle, John Lennon. It is also the place where we all became aware of Mark David Chapman. Then you can walk through the park to Strawberry Fields then back to Central Park West towards Trump Plaza and the Time Warner Center. You can get some good shopping done. Enjoy!