Ayla’s Voyage Blog

Publish Date: Wednesday, May 6, 2009
This morning, we pulled away from New York Harbor after a fantastic week spent walking in the city, visiting friends, touring landmarks, and enjoying city life after five days in the ocean. Usually I would simply write a regular blog about this, but it was sooooo fun, that to communicate everything I’ll do a review much like my bahamian review! The following are places and things we did, and why I really enjoyed them:

1. 

   Perseus with the Head of Medusa!

   The Metropolitan Museum Of Art: In Art History class in school we were studying the statue of Perseus with the Head of Medusa. This statue is world famous and depicts greek hero Perseus just after he has slayed the gorgon Medusa! When we went to the Met…TA-DA…There was the statue! I have a passion (some may describe this as obsession) for ancient Greek mythology, so seeing this was very very special.

2. MoMA: The Museum of Modern Art was a real highlight, as I am
   

   Falling Waters by Frank Lloyd Wright

   really into the modern structures and furniture of houses. We enjoyed looking at the models of Frank Lloyd Wright houses (specifically Falling Water, which is majestic). I also enjoyed seeing the variety of modern art such as the ‘pink slab’ and the ‘purple trapezoid’ — these pieces seemed to be nothing special, but they held a strange sort of fascination, and as the museum wrote, “were held together by the deep variety unified by their similarity and difference.” 🙂 Modern art really is interesting and fun to see!

   

   This is the "Pink Slab"... A piece of modern art.

3. The Broadway Show Wicked: This show was INCREDIBLE! I had
   

   Mom and I by the Wicked sign

   never seen it before, and seeing it on Broadway was really exciting. I loved the music and the costumes. It had interesting plot twists that give an entirely different outlook on OZ. As the tag line says “A lot happened in Oz before Dorthy dropped in.”

4. Tea and The Museum of Natural History with Dad: My dad and I took an afternoon and enjoyed walking around the Museum of Natural History as well as having tea at a cute and quaint little restaurant in the Upper West Side. At the Museum of Natural History, we saw the giant blue whalle as well as the Easter Island head (After Night At The Museum, this was very fun).
5. Learning to Sword Fight with Cousins:  Now, when living on a boat you get plenty of exercise, but the space to fly around wildly is somewhat limited. This is why sword fighting with my cousins, Cooper and Skylar, was a blast! Their room is really open, and both of them love Greek mythology like I do. Cooper taught me a bunch of cool tricks and has a style that for someone who doesn’t really like fighting, makes it really fun.
6. Belvedere Castle: My mom and I, walking back from the Met, discovered a little tiny castle in the
   

   Belvedere Castle in Central Park

   style of a French chateau nestled in the trees of Central Park! You can walk up in the towers and look out over all of Central Park from the balconies!

7. Girls Night With My Aunt: My Auntie Mo, who lives in NYC and works at an art gallery, and I, had a girls night out on the mooring ball one night. We enjoyed playing MarioKart (After a small motor cycle glitch while doing real riding with her friend, it only seemed appropriate). We also watched Twilight, cooked, and shared books and movies we both loved.
8. JP Morgan Library: This is an amazing library, home, and museum that we visited! It has one section that is very modern, and another that it super old fashioned. This library was JP Morgan’s, and it has an amazing collection of books. I enjoyed looking at the depictions of Greek mythology on the ceiling.
9. 

   My dad and I with signs outside of the Today Show

   The Today Show: Early one morning, my family and I went to the broadcast of The Today Show! Yes, it was probably 54 degrees and raining…but we still had an amazing time! Anne Curie, Matt Lauer, and Al Roker came outside for a little bit, and Mr. Roker came and shook hands! That was extremely fun.

10. Special Shout Out: Yesterday, we decided to pull up
    

    My dad is holding the linen that was wrapped around our propeller

    our anchor and cruise down the Hudson, but…ALARM…at the very beginning of our cruise, we hit something giant! Suddenly, we lost manuverability and the propeller was not running! Switching it the wing engine, we made it to a mooring ball where a diver came and cut out a…wow…six inch thick, ten foot long piece of polypropylene line with a knot in it the size of a basketball! Wow! This morning, all was well as we pulled out again…whew!