There seems to be this misconception that children from NYC don’t know much about nature. We live in the concrete jungle but those of us exposed to nature do exist. I love birds, pigeons are my friends, robins and I always have a stare down whenever I see them, crows fascinated me outside of my window from the projects growing up, ducks will always be my favorite (these were my pets living on an island), geese don’t mess around, hawks aren’t so rare to see in NYC and I’ve seen a bald eagle a couple of times in my lifetime living in this city. Squirrels come in all sorts of colors besides “basic” grey and will still freak me out when coming close to me for food (don’t follow a squirrel and not expect it to chase you the way it did me when I was 13). 

Central Park is just one place that is a gem to find all sorts of animals, particularly birds. I am by no means an expert but like to wander the ramble or other paths in the park to discover birds, turtles, dogs with their humans and more. Remember when especially bird watching to be respectful of these animals, don’t be obnoxious and if you encounter other bird watchers who aren’t friendly, ignore them. You belong there even if they don’t think you do. 

This is my second time visiting the NY Transit Museum but this time it was after hours for a craft event that I was invited to. I will almost not likely ever pass up an opportunity to look at trains so I went. I went with a friend who has never been so it was nice to show her around and explore without kids running around. They had refreshments (beer, woo hoo), some chips and an option to kind of sip & paint (we got there too late so we couldn’t do that).

We had some time to check out a collection of ads that MTA and other places have run before, things that were commissioned by MTA and really just get a small glimpse of how NYC used to be.

I love trains, I love the history behind them in NYC but like any New Yorker, I wish they were maintained and repaired to run better. If you really think about it, we have an amazing system set up from a century ago that moves so many daily around the city.