A Sunday Afternoon at the Met

As you know, Eric and I have been working hard to chip away at our NYC To-Do List for the past four years. After leaving Washington, D.C. with some regrets about things we had never done, we did not want to fall victim to the same fate in NYC, and we have learned that we are much more likely to actually do things if they are written down (thus, I am a big proponent of the bucket list theory - if you write it down, you may actually do it!). I have to say, we have made excellent progress, and the only things left on our list are museums.

The first weekend of every month, Bank of America runs a "Museums on Us" program, and your BoA card can get you free admission to a number of great museums - including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, which was one of the remaining museums on our list. Given that we now have a baby so didn't want to gamble that she would last long enough in a museum to make the regular $25-per-person admission charge worth it, Free Museum Weekend sounded like the way to do things. So, we took advantage this month!

We took the PATH into the city then hopped on the subway up to 81st (Ellie's first subway ride!), and walked east through Central Park (Ellie's first time in Central Park!) over to the museum.

Eric and Ellie in Central Park

The Met

Happy museum-going family

There was no line when we arrived (hooray), and our BoA cards did, in fact, get us in for free (double hooray). We started our visit in the Egyptian wing.

Ellie's first trip to a museum!

Models from the Tomb of Meketre

Admiring the Egyptian exhibits

Fun with statues!

From there it was on to Arms and Armor.

Arms and Armor

I am a bad museum-goer and forgot to make note of who the armor on the left actually belonged to, but I believe it was a French king of some sort. Maybe a Philip? Hard to say. Either way, Ellie and I are enjoying ourselves.

Then, to the American Wing.

George Washington

Eric and Washington Crossing the Delaware

Finally, we sought out the Impressionist exhibit, which is my favorite. I'm a sucker for a nice Monet.

Still happy in the museum!

Left: Monet's Sunflowers

Right: Art museums are so boring.

Van Gogh's Wheat Field

Van Gogh's self portrait, and one of the many Degas paintings I loved so much

With "A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte"

Ellie really did quite well through it all - she started to get a bit fussy before we hit the Monets, but as per usual, Daddy's arms cure all and she fell asleep, which enabled us to spend a little more time perusing the paintings. Thanks, Ellie!

Museums are exhausting.

And when she woke up, she was a happy camper.

There's my happy baby!

Outside the museum with Daddy

We decided not to push our luck, however, and chose to end our museum outing. We headed out and started the journey home. We stopped for a quick "picnic lunch" for Ellie in Central Park, and made a brief detour to take her by the Alice in Wonderland statue.

Eric, Ellie and Alice

Family photo!

Flying baby!

It was really a wonderful afternoon. Ellie really impressed us with her lack of meltdowns, because we were out for quite a while. She's just getting to be such a grown-up! I would say her first museum outing was very successful. What a cultured baby!