"T-Rex-erick Cook" goes north!

Roar! Yesterday I decided to make an expedition to the north, just like Frederick Cook, the founder of the New York Explorers Club! I started my journey by first heading to visit continental Manhattan.

Here I am on the bridge that leads from Inwood to Marble Hill, the only neighborhood in Manhattan not on the island. It turns out Marble Hill was once actually part of the island until the Army Corps of Engineer built a channel for ships into the East River. Now Marble Hill is part of the continental mainland! I sure hope the Bronx doesn't try to take it over!

Marble Hill got its name from all the marble deposits that used to be found here. They were all stripped out long ago and now all that's left are the steep granite cliffs from the quarries. Here I am hanging out in front of one of these granite cliffs. Someone even built a house up there, but I don't think they want any visitors.

Oh no! It looks like the dog has spotted me! I hope he's friendly! Roar!

Since Marble Hill is part of Manhattan it has a lot of fancy people living in it, in lots of fancy houses!

Roar! I don't know why, but I'm really partial to this house! 

Woah! Check out the decal on this car. This guy really is living up in "da hill!" Roar!

Look at this fence! I guess the people in Marble Hill really do want to keep the Bronx out! It's going to be a bit harder to get to my next destination than I realized! 

After finding my way out of Marble Hill, I headed up to the College of Mount St. Vincent in the Bronx. I came here because the northern corner of their campus is also the northernmost point in New York City.

Here I am hanging out on the campus for the College of Mount St. Vincent. Look at how sweet this building is! It was built when the college was first founded in 1857.

Oh my gosh! They even have a sweet castle! This sure is one cool college! Now if only they had a windmill! Roar! 

Oh my! I really am up north! Look at the black squirrel in that tree!

Roar! I'm so far north I even fell into Symmes's hole! Good thing I'm a T-Rex! Not even the center of the earth can hold me! Roar! 

Finally, I made it to the northern most point in New York City. To my right is some strange, foreign land called "Yonkers" and across the Hudson river is some terrifying place whose name I've only heard mentioned in hushed whispers when visiting some of the shadier parts of NYC. It's a name best left unsaid. 

Here I am looking south from the top of New York City. Just look how pretty the sky is as the sun sets behind the George Washington Bridge. 

I threw up a sticker on the fence that divided New York City from "Yonkers." Now I also have the northernmost graffiti in city! Roar! 

On my way back downtown from the Bronx I stopped to visit Grant's Tomb. Who's buried there again? 

Why it's president Ulysses S. Grant and his wife! I thought this type of monument belonged in Washington D.C.  I guess Grant wanted to make sure he was buried safely in Yankee territory. Roar!

After leaving Grant's Tomb I headed down to Chinatown for some delicious hotpot at the Grand Sichuan restaurant! Mmmm! Just look at that delicious meat! What a great end to a great day! Roar!

UPDATE: It turns out Frederick Cook lived right in my neighborhood in Bushwick. The mansion he lived in is right on Bushwick Ave between Myrtle and Willoughby. 

It looks like his awesome mansion has fallen into disrepair. Too bad, it's such a cool looking building! I feel bad for old Frederick Cook, he led an expedition to the North Pole in 1907 and claimed to have reached to pole in 1908, a full year before Robert Peary. Peary then set out to discredit Cook and succeeded. Poor old Frederick Cook's reputation never recovered. Roar...

Vistiting the SchwROARzman Building!

Roar! It was a nice day out today so I decided to head over to the Schwarzman building of New York Public library and visit some friends. It's such a cool building, it has two big lion statues out front and inside it's really opulent and fancy.

Here I am in front of the Schwarzman building. This is the same building where they filmed the beginning of Ghostbusters. I hope Charles BOO's doesn't get me!

These are the friends I came to visit. The children's section of the Schwarzman building has the original Winnie-the-Pooh, Tigger, Eeyore, Piglet, and Kanga stuffed toys owned by the real-life Christopher Robin Mine. These are the toys A. A. Milne based the stories off of for his son. It was really cool to come visit Winnie-the-Pooh and his friends but unfortunately they're just toys and not real like I am! Roar!

I really like the title of the library's kids magazine!

Next I headed upstairs to the massive reading room to enjoy a good book! The reading room is so awesome. It's almost 300 feet long and over 75 feet wide! It's a really nice place to sit down and read a book. Another great thing about the library is they have so many books about me, T-Rex! I never knew I was so popular!

It turns out there are even Lions on the inside of the Library. Just what is he looking at anyway?! Roar!

A Long Night Out on the Solstice

Roar! Today was the winter solstice and last night was the longest night of the year. I decided it would be fun to spend the whole night wandering around New York to see what I can do in the city that never sleeps. It was a long night but it was also a lot of fun.

After watching the sunset on the roof of my apartment I decided to take a stroll around my neighborhood. Here I am relaxing in Maria Hernandez Park enjoying the last few moments of twilight. It was really interesting to watch the light change throughout the course of the evening as I explored the various stages of night. Roar!

As I walked through Bushwick I found this open lot full of undisturbed snow. It was illuminated by the window of a nearby apartment. I had a ton of fun stomping around in the snow, casting all sorts of wild shadows everywhere. If the people in that apartment looked out their window they would have been so surprised to see a T-Rex playing outside in the snow.

My neighborhood is so up and coming. Check out this restaurant, it's both "Tasty" and "Chic!" I love places that combine food and fashion! Yum!

Next, I headed over to the Bushwick Farmers Market Winter Solstice Feast. It was a great event and there was a ton of great food. Here I am enjoying some delicious rabbit shepherds pie while sipping a tasty beverage.

In one room they had a screen showing all these great images of planet earth. Roar! Watch out gazelles! This isn't a lion, IT'S A T-REX!

Here I am working the bar at the Solstice Feast. Anyone care for a glass of wine?

There was a lot of ambient lighting at the feast. Just look at all these candles. They were really getting into the spirit of the night. Maybe I'll take one of the candles with me for later.

T-Rex and the Shadowy Way made their debut at the solstice feast! Everyone was grooving to our post-apocalyptic sounds. Someone even told me I had a voice like Tom Waits. Roar!

After I ate my fill and helped out a bit, I left the feast and headed back outside into the cold. I passed this sign so I decided to look behind the fence to see what the man was up to. It was crazy -- he was juggling while riding a unicycle in the snow. If you can find this place I definitely recommend watching the man inside. Roar!


Next I headed up to the Kaufman Astoria movie theater in Queens to see a late night showing of Avatar. The effects were amazing but the story was so-so, it could have used more dinosaurs. Overall I had a great time and it was good way to fill part of the night.


After I left the theater I decided to walk to Jackson Heights from Astoria. I passes this 24 hour tanning salon. After seeing Avatar I considered going in for the late night special to make myself a bluer shade of green.

As I continued my walk to Jackson Heights I passed this great spot where the trees were casting some amazing shadows. Can you find me in this picture?

When I got to Jackson Heights I headed over to Sammy's Halal Cart. They won the Vendy Award for best street food in New York City in 2007. I got a big box of meat over rice! It sure hit the spot on a cold night.

Woah! Check out all the meat Sammy's is grilling! It all looks so warm and tasty! Roar!

Next I went over to Flushing Meadows park to see the big statue of Prometheus they built for the 1964 Worlds Fair. I decided to light a candle for Prometheus but it didn't give off much light so it's a little hard to see him in this picture. If you look carefully you can make out his shadow in the darkness.

Here I am in front of the Unisphere at Flushing Meadows park. It was really quiet in the park that late at night. No one else was around so it was nice to just hang out at the Unisphere and have the world all to myself. Roar!

Next I took the train into Manhattan and went up to Rockefeller Center to see the other statue of Prometheus here in New York.

I didn't need to light a candle for this Prometheus because it turned out they'd already lit a whole tree for him! Look at how pretty it is! Roar!

Next I walked down 5th ave to 14th street to take the L train back home. It was really fun to look at the window displays all the fancy stores have put up. Ooh, look at all the crazy animatronics. It's like in a big budget movie!

I got off the L train and headed up to the roof of my apartment just in time to watch the sunrise. Just look how beautiful it is! I was starting to wonder if it would ever come up.

Snow Time!

Roar! It finally snowed here in New York City. I always have a hard time when it snows. It reminds me of the end of the Cretaceous. We never thought it was going to snow as long as it did so whenever it snows now I always get nervous until it stops. My girlfriend, Giraffe, came over to keep me company which was great. It's really nice to have a warm blooded girlfriend on cold days like these.

Here I am with Giraffe all snuggled up on the couch. We were watching some Christmas specials together. No Rudolph, you're not a misfit. It's ok!

Giraffe spent the night and this morning we got bundled up and went outside to play in the snow.

I built myself a snow-dinosaur. I think it came out alright but it's really hard to mold snow with my claws. I'm much better at carving ice. Roar!

Here I am all bundled up with Giraffe playing in the snow. We had such a great time together!