My Urban Safari

Cheetahs

Rhinos

Warthogs

Gazelle?

Me and Julia

On Sunday I took my wonderful goddaughter Julia to the Museum of Natural History. I'm actually embarrassed to admit that I hadn't been there before. We scarfed down a few pieces of pizza for energy before our vast urban safari. I had been to the museum in D.C., which is amazing, so maybe I figured it would be similar. And, it was. It has a giant blue whale hanging from the ceiling, some giant stuffed elephants, a load of dinosaur skeletons, fossils, stuffed animals, and stuff that's fallen from space. Thankfully they also have a very informative short film narrated by Meryl Streep explaining how much humans are screwing up the earth by killing off most of its animals and their habitats. Maybe some of these kids will become politicians later and change the course of the planet. We can only hope!

I was amazed by the dioramas. These wonderful windows into the vast African savannas. I put my little point-and-shoot camera close to the glass and for a moment it was as if I was actually on safari (okay, that's a stretch, but it was cool). Excited as we walked up to each window, Julia would grab my camera while still around my neck (I bent over) and shoot her own "lower version." Most of which included the display frames, people in front of the dioramas, the floor, etc.

We spent a wonderful day together on our urban safari.