Wild Weekend Part One: Thursday

Roar! This was one wild weekend! There was so much stuff happening all at once and just no way I could do it all. Like every New York weekend it started on a Thursday, with a trip to the museums in lower Manhattan. First I went to Federal Hall to see the spot where George Washington was sworn in as first president of the USA.

George W. was one classy guy! He sure loved T-Rexes.

This is the stone that George Washington stood on when he took office. I hear if you look hard enough you can still see his boot print. Roar!

Next, I went to the Skyscraper museum over by Battery Park. It has a really cool show on comparing the growth of New York City at the beginning of the 20th century to the current building boom in Shanghai. Here I am in front of an artist rendering of one of the new "future" skyscrapers they are building in Shanghai.

Here I am attacking a model of a new skyscraper in Hong Kong. I hope the real building can hold up to a dinosaur attack!

The Skyscraper Museum had this small exhibit on the Burj Dubai. They really need to update their photos. The exterior of the Burj is done. It's 818 meters high and it's not just the tallest building but the tallest thing ever built by humans! That's pretty cool if you ask me!

In the gift shop of the Sky Scraper Museum they had this cool book of old stereoscopic slides of New York City. It even had a built in viewer so you could look at them all in 3-D.

Here is a stereoscopic image of me looking at slides in the book.

Next stop was the Museum of the American Indian which is in the old U.S. Customs House. Here I am in their sweet lobby!

They had some great art on display. Here I'm checking out the work of this Inuit artist Annie Pootoogook. It was really cool.

This crazy painting is by Andrea Carlson and is really awesome. I definitely recommend checking it out!

Here I am in Bowling Green outside of the Museum of the American Indian. Bowling Green is where the dutch aristocracy would play lawn games back in the early days of New York City. During the Pig War in the winter of 1643 to 44 the Dutch cut the heads off all the Native Americans living in lower Manhattan and then all of the Dutch women went bowling with the heads. It was awful!

I think the park rules should include no playing with human remains. Roar!

I headed back up to Wall Street to get my bike and go home. Now a days everyone is making such a big deal about the economy and the stock market. I remember back at the end of the Cretaceous when the BER (Bone Exchange Rate) fell and everyone started panicking! Now those were some scary times!

As I was heading home I passed the tree lighting ceremony for the New York Stock Exchange. They had all the different celebrities there to perform. Oh my god, is that Lady Gaga?!

2012 to 268!

Roar! With the new movie 2012 out in theaters there has been a lot of talk about the end of the world. Well I've seen the end of the world once already but what I haven't seen is the end of New York City. So yesterday I decided to go there!

Here I am down at Broadway Junction. This is where all the old roads coming into New York used to converge and turn into one toll road heading into the city. All the roads still meet here along with all the trains in the area. I figured this would be the perfect place to start my journey. Turns out Broadway Junction is one big nightmare! The pavement is coming up all over the place and the old cobbles stones are showing through. Not to mention the traffic! I don't think I'll come through here again unless I have to.

From Broadway Junction I decided to ride down Jamaica Ave. It used to be an old Indian trail that went along the edge of the glacial moraine. Now it's just another busy road. When I was riding through Woodhaven on Jamaica Ave they had these Christmas decorations out and were playing Christmas songs on speakers underneath the J train. It was really neat! I got to hear Alvin and the Chipmunks. I want a hula hoop too! Roar!

Next, I turned off Jamaica Ave and headed up Hillside Ave to the end of New York City. On the corner of Hilllside and Lefferts Blvd I passed the old Republican Club. It was all boarded up and abandoned. I guess things aren't going so well for them.

I rode up Hillside all the way to the very edge of Queens. Here I am standing at the corner of Hillside Ave and 268th St. This is the last street corner in New York City and as far east as you can go. I'm staring out into the horrifying, desolate expanse that lies beyond New York City. I believe it's called... Long Island.

This is the Jian On Chinese restaurant on the corner of Hillside and 268th. I think they missed a great opportunity to call it something cliche like "Far East Chinese Restaurant" and have it actually mean something. Other than its location it's just your standard New York Chinese restaurant. Roar!

Next to the Chinese place was a crazy martial arts studio. It had this awesome mural painted on the side of the building. Is that guy trying punch that dude in the groin?! Ouch!

Here are all the wooden boards they break at the martial arts studio. They sure are serious!

Oh no, poor Dexter! I hope someone finds him! Roar!

I threw up this sticker on the first parking meter in NYC. Now I have the eastern most graffiti in the city.

After a long ride I was feeling pretty hungry so I decided to eat at this sweet looking Indian-Chinese restaurant I saw a few blocks back.

Mmmm... This Hot and Sour soup with chicken sure did warm me right up!

Here I have Chilly Chicken Hakka Style in a light gravy and Chili Garlic Noodles with Chicken. Total Chicken Max-Out!

On the way home while I was riding down Myrtle Ave and I passed this strange looking truck. It was marked "OPERATIVE CAKE CORP." I think this is the agency that monitors all the secret, underground cake activity that takes place in the city. It would be so awesome to work for them, I love cake! Roar!