An inspirational gift

We got a wonderful gift from mom this year (thanks mom!). It is a membership to the American Museum of Natural History.

I love this museum. I took advantage of the membership and went to the museum on Wednesday with my friends Doug and Rachael. We had tried to go to the Tenement Museum, but it was sold out, so we had some ice cream from Il Labororatorio del Gelato and then headed uptown.

I have been to the AMNH a few times, but had forgotten how fabulous it is. The Hall of Biodiversity, the Giant Whale Hall (I don't think that is the actual name of it), the halls from around the world the Planetarium and one of my favorites, the Minerals and Gems collection (I also got an encyclopedia of minerals for Christmas). I could literally spend hours looking at the minerals (if it weren't so hot in there!).

I am looking forward to going back to the AMNH with G to enjoy the planetarium, the Darwin and Butterfly shows and the show of photographs by the people of China's Yunan Province.

What a great museum. It should fuel a lot of work this year. I will try to post some pictures too. I started a drawing based on the Goethite (don't have pics of that, but some others are above) in their collection.