American Museum of Natural History

Where: New York City, NY

When: October 1989 and many times since

With: Parents and many friends since

When I was a little kid, similar to many kids, I wanted to be an archaeologist. Why? Duh, dinosaurs, just like every other aspiring archaeologist. And since we were studying them in kindergarten, my parents thought it would make for a great first trip into New York City to take me to the mecca of dinosaur bones, the American Museum of Natural History (AMNH). 

Though to say that all the museum is known for is dinosaur bones would be grossly misrepresentative. Sitting on the western edge of Central Park, this museum was founded in 1877 by a group of men who included the father of one of our country's great naturalists, Theodore Roosevelt. Its mission? "To discover, interpret, and disseminate—through scientific research and education—knowledge about human cultures, the natural world, and the universe." 

From one original building, the museum now has 28 interconnected buildings and 45 exhibition halls. There are so many artifacts in the museums collection that they can't all be displayed at once. There's a planetarium, meteorites, tons of cultural artifacts, gemstones, and lots of animals. One could literally spend days in here. 

Despite the huge collection, being that I was only six, my parents still kept the museum tour pretty focused on the dinosaurs. Interestingly, this was the first time I really used my own camera to take photos. So it's an interesting view of what I found important to photograph in this museum. I seemed to really like this summary board of the dinosaurs I knew. 

And obviously, anything with bones was cool.

The massive free standing bones were obviously the most impressive to a small child. 

A triceratops and me!

A nest of fossilized eggs. 

I thought my dad being eaten by giant teeth was hysterical.  

And we must have spent a little time in the marine life area because I was blown away by the massive blue whale hanging from the ceiling. 

When I moved to New York in 2005, I lived in the Upper West Side and was pleasantly surprised to find out how close I was to the museum I loved so much as a child. When I hosted my first house guests, a couple of friends from college, this seemed like the logical touristy spot to visit. While the dinosaurs still tugged at my heart, I went in with fresh eyes to see what else the museum offered (though clearly my maturity levels hadn't increased much in the last 20 years). 

Our first stop was in the butterfly gallery where I was amazed to see that butterflies just exist indoors for tourists to visit. It was so serene and trippy to have them flying all around us!

After butterflies, we wandered to the animal displays in the museum. I did not realize these were all taxidermy animals. It was...not my favorite. Impressive in some ways, as they are set up in dioramas of their "natural" habitat to demonstrate movement and give color to their lifestyle, but I think I'd prefer to see them alive and in the wild. Luckily, for whatever reason, everyone else seemed in agreement, and we just headed back to the dinosaurs. 

It was still just as fun to see all the dinosaur bones as an adult. 

There's even a dinosaur that's still got some skin on it after mummifying!

And this time, it was fun to take some funny pictures. 

Some things just don't get old, even at this very old museum filled with even older specimens. Especially when it comes to dinosaurs - they really bring out the kid in all of us. I love this museum, and while I didn't grow up to be an archaeologist, I still get that same rush from seeing all those bones.