That Bad Big Rock

On Saturday we finally got around to that most quintessential of activities for a New York child: we took Fiona to the Museum of Natural History. In the morning we asked her if she wanted to go see some dinosaur bones, and she gave an excited "yeah!" Then we had the following exchange:

Fiona: How about if we go see some real dinosaurs?

Daddy: There aren't any real dinosaurs around any more, honey.

Fiona: Why not?

Daddy: They all died.

Fiona: When?

Daddy: A long time ago. Before there were even any people.

Fiona: They all died?

Daddy: That's right.

Fiona: Who did that?

I explained about the asteroid, which I later modified to "a big rock hit the Earth," and how it changed the weather. Later that day, Fiona started telling her mother about the dead dinosaurs, saying "who did that? A big rock!"

So we headed off to Manhattan on a sweltering June morning, transferring twice thanks to some track work, but Fiona remained in good spirits throughout. When we reached 81st Street, Fiona found herself in heaven. The subway station beneath the museum is decorated with images of dinosaur bones, fish, butterflies, grasshoppers, lady bugs, and just about anything else that might count for natural history. As she saw each one, Fiona ran toward it exclaiming "Mommy, look at this one!" It took us ten minutes just to get out of the subway station.

Once we arrived, our first stop was the hall of African mammals, and Fiona ran from display to display as quickly as she could. We quickly discovered that when you escort Fiona to a museum, you have approximately three seconds to read the notes on any individual display before you're being pulled on to the next one -- not out of childhood boredom, but because she's so excited she wants to take everything in as quickly as possible.

Having made a lap of the African room, we realized we hadn't picked up a map, so Andrea headed back to the lobby to procure one. I held back with Fiona, and asked her if she liked the museum so far.

"Yeah," she said. "This place is cool!"

There's not much more to say other than that; the Museum of Natural History is pretty cool, and for a parent watching his or her child it's instantly worth the price of admission. We checked out the dinosaurs, plus some of the extinct species, and then made a return trip to the African mammals at the end. I'll just leave you with this picture of Fiona next to the arm bone of an apatosaurus. As always, you can click on any picture on blogger to bring up a bigger image.