A Shot in the Rain: New York City
Anne LaTarte and Stephanie Gunther shelter themselves from a sudden shower on the steps of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY. Photo by Kayte Deioma
A Rainy Day in ….New York City
My nieces, Becca (9) and Sarah (7), wanted to visit American Girl Place in New York, so being the accommodating aunt that I am, I organized a trip to take them to the big city. Their mother, my sister Ellie, and their big brother Derick (16), also came along, so we tried to fit in activities that would appeal to all ages.
New York City is the number one most visited city in the United States. Some of its most famous landmarks, like the Statue of Liberty, Empire State Building and Central Park are great activities for a clear day. However, if the
temperatures are above freezing, you could encounter a rain at any time of the year, and escaping the winter cold and summer heat, are equally good reasons for planning some indoor activities.
There are certainly plenty of options for staying out of the weather, from world class museums and monuments to amazing shopping, scintillating nightlife and, of course, the most famous live theatre district in the world.
To develop your contingency plan to escape indoors in New York, come along with us on a virtual visit to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the NBC Studio Tour, Madame Tussauds Wax Museum, nights out on and off Broadway, and of course, American Girl Place.
NYC Features:
A Taste of Art: A Bite-Size Visit to the Met
For more rainy day New York alternatives, check out the New York Rainy Day Links page.
Since I was in New York this time with my sister and her kids, I decided that it was more important for the kids to get a taste of great art than to worry about not having time to see the whole thing, and thereby miss everything. We didn’t expect the kids to have the patience to stay in a museum more than a couple hours anyway.
We rented the audio tour headsets, which I don’t usually do on my own, but it turned out to be great for the kids. It was easier for the younger ones than reading the information panels. As we moved through the colorful sarcophagi, carved limestone monuments and painted hieroglyphics, they really enjoyed punching in the numbers and having control over which descriptions they heard. There wasn’t a child-friendly version of the tour like there is some places, but they seemed to do just fine.
We met the rest of the families downstairs in the Uris Center for Education. After a brief introduction, our guide, Amir Parsa, took us back upstairs to the Arts of Africa, Oceania and the Americas. We all settled on the floor in front of a glass case lined with carved wooden masks from Mali. After a brief Q and A about the use of masks around the world, we learned more about these Dogon Masks, used in mourning dances several years after the person died.
We moved around the corner to Papua New Guinea to study more masks and spirit boards from the temporary exhibit “Coaxing the Spirits to Dance: Art of the Papuan Gulf.” After studying the intricately carved and painted spirit boards and learning how art and culture go hand in hand, children and parents were given paper and pencils to copy their favorite board designs, or create their own.
After our hour-long journey into art appreciation, we planned our exit route to take in the new Greek and Roman sculpture exhibit in the sky-lit Leon Levy and Shelby White Court. The atrium, populated with Roman statues from the first century BC to the third century AD, was a great preview for Derick, who would soon be setting off on an excursion to Italy.
Year’s ago, I took some of my siblings to see Blood Brothers on Broadway during a weekend getaway to the city. They only went along to humor me. There was a universal attitude among them of “What’s the big deal? We’ve seen lots of plays.” After the performance, my sister Ellie looked at me with her eyes still lit up and said, “Now I get why you love Broadway!”
production to introduce them to the magic of Broadway.
I was looking for something more original, where the story and music would be fresh and new, so we’d have no preconceptions. Ellie and I agreed on the award winning musical “The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee” playing at the 623-seat Circle in the Square. Even though the age recommendation was 10 and up, we decided the content looked innocuous enough, and our 7 and 9-year olds are relatively
sophisticated.
In addition to the Broadway experience, another New York original production that’s worth a visit, especially when traveling with kids, is the Blue Man Group. This New York spectacle is still better in the 300-seat Astor Place Theatre in the Big Apple than at any of its giant spin-off homes around the world.
spattered with the beat of a drum or spit skillfully onto a canvas. They manage to keep most of the mess miraculously on stage, but some flying substance that bore a strong resemblance to macaroni and cheese did manage to reach Becca in the fifth row. She was blissfully clad in plastic, so she was immune to the yuck factor.