Day Five: Artopolis, Conservatory Garden & the MET

Okay. I realize I'm starting to over-use words like 'perfect' and 'delicious' and 'amazing' and 'gorgeous'... but I find the English language lacking in more fitting descriptive words (I'm sure you could help me out here mother?!). Because today really was another perfect day. The food was delicious, the gardens were gorgeous and the MET was amazing.

We started the morning a little late (my fault again. I stay up so late talking each night that I keep sleeping in (Emily, I know you'll find that hard to believe). And then when I DO get up, for some reason it keeps taking me ages to get ready. Grrrr). So we headed over to Artopolis for lunch. To say that this place is a hidden gem, would be a gross understatement. Brecken, Reuben and I split a chicken crepe and a yummy yummy salad (which was delicious even though it had berries in it!). And then.... (drum roll please).... we ordered dessert.

This place is heaven.

(I thought that sentence should be it's own paragraph).

Brecken and I ordered 3 fancy little desserts to share, but Reuben didn't want a fancy dessert, so we just ordered him a little bit of ice cream (which was technically gelato).



All three of our desserts were DIVINE. So we asked Reuben if we could try a little of his Gelato. The following two photos are not staged:



This is where the words begin to complete fail me. That ice cream was.... well... it was.... like.... the BEST ice cream I've ever had. It was chocolate hazelnut (I didn't bother with the strawberry), and it was.... like.... truly.... well, it was like a slice of frozen heaven. A dream within a dream. Real 'I'll have what she's having' stuff. I could have died after eating that ice cream, and it would have been okay. Everything worth doing, would have been done. Ahh. I'll be dreaming about that ice cream. I don't even LIKE ice cream that much normally... *happy sigh*

I kept stealing extra spoon fulls when Reuben wasn't looking, because I kept thinking 'surely it's not THAT good'. But ever time, I was left just speechlessly shaking my head. I REALLY was, THAT GOOD.

Okay, we finally left Artopolis. Brecken only got me out the door by promising we'd go back there again before I left (And don't worry, I have a backup plan if it someone falls off our list of things to do: It's right across the street from the hospital, so if we had to go THERE for some reason, I could totally sneak in some ice cream.... are you thinking what I'm thinking people?!)

Okay, okay. So we left Artopolis, and caught the bus up and around to the Conservatory Garden, which is in the North East section of Central Park. The Conservatory Gardens are beautifully landscaped and kept English gardens. And, well, I'll let the pictures speak for themselves:











And then we went on to the MET - The Metropolitan Museum of Art. WHAT a fabulous place! We did a kids tour/class with Reuben first, and it was a lot of fun. They had a medieval musician come and play a bunch of instruments and talk a little about medieval music. She was wonderful - very talented and really interesting for both the parents and the kids (and of course the Australian tag-a-longs). Then we ran through the European Painting, Drawings and Photography, 19th and 20th century Painting, Greek and Roman Art, and the Musical Instruments. We would have loved to spend even longer there as we were only just beginning to cover the tip of the iceberg, but we ran out of time (and the MET really isn't the most interesting place for a 4 year old).



Saw some really, really beautiful pieces of art though. I think the Monets were my favourites - although really, everything from that period (which is one of my favourites), was wonderful.

And then it was homeward bound :) Justin had made Macaroni and Cheese for us for dinner (that sounds like nothing special, but he used a whole bunch of different and yummy cheeses, and it was delicious!). Then I sent Brecken and Justin off on a date so they could spend a little time together. Justin's just handed in his MFA thesis portfolio (the day I arrived, I believe!), so Brecken had barely seen him for weeks before that :) They went to see the movie 'date night', and I think they had a good time. The boys fell asleep qickly and easily, and then I spent a couple of wonderful hours talking on the phone to everyone at home. So great to hear their voices and catch up a little on everything that's been going on.

Okay. That's me for another day! I think I'm going to have to get that 'I love NY' symbol you see on T-shirts tattooed to my forehead....

xo Tammy

PS. Oh, and if you hear that someone broke into Artopolis looking for their chocolate/hazelnut gelato recipe, and that the police have a suspect in custody, would someone please come and bail me out? Thanks!