rainy day adventures

i haven't been posting and we've had a whole week of fun adventures with eva's charlotte! i'm now trying to remedy this situation and i hope to be more diligent. 

today was the rainiest day and charlotte planned to be out of the apartment at 9 am to attend a ballet class uptown at steps on broadway and to then walk to the natural history museum as she had never been. however! i remembered that we had ballet tickets for a "classic nycb" performance at lincoln center at 7:30 pm, so there was a quick change of plans and she came home for some hot soup and a rest after class. we then walked through the cold and the wind and the rain to twentieth street and broadway for the teddy roosevelt birthplace tour.

eliza was our tour guide. she was new, she said, and perhaps a little nervous? she spoke very quickly at first, with a memorized script, and it was difficult for me to understand her. however, after asking a few questions and engaging her in conversation, we were able to establish a comfortable rhythm and to learn a lot from her. as a younger tour guide, she was equipped with an ipad of photos, and she whipped it out at just the right moment to share pictures of teddy's siblings and of teddy himself.

i think this is a stereoscope on which they would look at pictures of famous landmarks and historic sights. i think it was the 19th century version of the view-master. i'm not sure of this, however. it's a question i did not ask. i believe i need another visit!

the lovely parlor room which was used for guests and special occasions. the wallpaper, curtains and satin material for chairs and sofa were all furnished in a beautiful sky blue color.

after our wonderful tour of president roosevelt's birthplace, we headed uptown on the b train to the american museum of natural history, which teddy's father helped to found in 1869 (there's a statue of teddy on the steps outside the museum. i'll have to include a photo of it in the future. whenever i pass it now, i always think about how proud roosevelt senior would be of his son, who was the first president to receive the nobel peace prize and who reserved so much land for posterity as parks and national sites). this is one of our favorite museums, and we have spent many happy homeschooling field trips here.

here charlotte is standing in the expansive entrance rotunda. i neglected to check on what dinosaur soars behind her.

these may be hartebeasts or eland on the serengeti plane. sorry, i'm not sure. i took the pic for the seashell in the foreground! charlotte and i were intrigued at its inclusion in the diorama. was it a curator's child's request? was it native to the terrain, left from past seas?

i believe these are gazelles. i took the photo for the painting of the horizon. the dioramas are beautiful and incredibly precise. this is the serengeti plain, east of lake victoria, tanzania.

who are these handsome creatures? they are oryx gazella from the sahara desert. both males and females have these beautiful ridged horns.

here charlotte is taking a picture of central park as seen from the astor turret, one of my favorite corners in the museum.

central park in the mist and cold of february. i feel that the weather always turns dramatic when i enter this turret!

central park west . .

the view north . .

dinosaurs on the fourth floor . . 

these are duck billed dinosaurs or hadrosaurs and they lived seventy million years ago, during the cretaceous period.

where are we now? after meeting chanda at steps on broadway, and touring the fairway market and buying blackberry acai chocolate made by lindt, and eating dinner at a VERY crowded cafe boulud on broadway . . .

(cafe boulud!)

we arrived at the new york state theatre at lincoln center for a performance by the new york city ballet. 

charlotte didin't like this pic and i said i wouldn't use it, but i am! oops! i think she looks lovely with the gold and deep red velvet of the theatre behind her. we saw megan fairchild dance with anthony huxley in square dance, choreographed by george balanchine (i love balanchine and thought it was amazing).

it was then intermission, and both charlotte and i were amused that the lobby held an exhibition of balloons by artist jihan zencirli. (i had just complained earlier in the day that i hated balloons and considered them garbage).

the exhibit is rather amazing, but even though the balloons are supposedly biodegradable, i think they contribute a lot of waste to the world.

the second two pieces were oltramare by mauro bigonzetti (music by bruno moretti) and the four seasons by jerome robbins (music by giuseppi verdi). both were wonderful, but i truly loved the four seasons. jerome robbins has such a great sense of humor, even though i've heard stories that he was quite the taskmaster in rehearsal!

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after the performance, we were happy to board the subway and head home to a warm apartment and two hungry cats!

sagamore hill . . at last!

we have been talking for years about driving to sagamore hill on long island, teddy roosevelt's home in oyster bay. for two years it had been undergoing a renovation which delayed our visit, but it's been open now for another two years so we have had no excuses . . except for being too busy . . or distracted with other things?!

 why do i think chanda is talking about food and eating here? maybe because we didn't have a very big breakfast? greg is reading about the staff housing that is just beyond the sign under several trees. they had several cooks and kitchen staff, chambermaids, a nurse for the children and a valet who was the "head man." the property was a working farm upon which they grew timothy, rye grass and corn to feed the horses, pigs, and dairy cows. they had about a hundred chickens for eggs and poultry for the family and servants. they also had a fruit orchard with peach, plum, pear and apple trees; and a three acre garden with raspberry, blueberry and strawberry bushes, a myriad of vegetables, and a grape arbor with three to four varieties of grapes.

the staff housing . .

 their windmall . .

windmill story (as quoted from theodore and copied from a display board during our visit):

the other day . . . the windmill . . . was squeaking. i got an oil can and climbed up to oil it, neglecting to shut off the mill. just as i got to the top, the wind veered. the paddle swung around and took off a slice of my scalp. i started to climb down, but i'm big and clumsy and it took quite a little while. by the time i got to the house my face and shoulders were drenched with blood. inside the door i met mrs. roosevelt. "theodore," she said, "i wish you'd do your bleeding in the bathroom. you're spoiling every rug in the  house."

theodore roosevelt, 1913

 the house was built in 1885 and has twenty three rooms. the downstairs entrance has a library to the right as you enter and the parlor to the left. the large hallway holds an enormous chime that supposedly was incredibly loud and called everyone to meals. a large north room that was added to the house in later years holds many treasures given to the family as gifts from various sultans and kings. there was a huge book of german folklore from king wilhelm the second, an expansive and beautiful wool rug from the sultan of the ottoman empire (that would be abdülhamid the second, mehmed the fifth, or mehmed the sixth), and a long and intricately decorated sword from . . . another important personage! there were also several animal rugs in EACH room (!) and many, many mounted animal heads on all the walls (bison, deer, bears . . etc.). surprisingly (considering that i used to be vegetarian and never liked killing animals) i have always loved this house and the dead animals displayed in it. (i came often with my parents when growing up.)

interesting note: though theodore roosevelt was such an avid hunter, the antiquities act was passed during his presidency and he created nineteen to twenty national monuments to protect natural, cultural and scientific features. supposedly, the impetus for this was a return he made to his ranch in wyoming in the early 1900's to find that many of the wild animals there had been hunted to almost extinction (i.e. the american buffalo).

 the roosevelt family motto: he who will plant will cultivate.

 the view from the front porch . .

 i don't have many pictures of the interior . . but here's one of his wife's room (edith carow). i love the afghan hanging at the foot of the bed.

the headboard is noted for it's beautiful woodwork and originally was from their city house on 57th street.

 the blue room in which theodore died in 1919 (which used to be his daughter ethel's room and a spare guest room). his wife died in 1948, which was when the house was bought by the theodore roosevelt association, a non-profit corporation established in 1919.

 i love the hundreds of books found all over the house on beautiful wood bookshelves. here is a blurry picture of three volumes of the works of bret harte. greg and i recently learned about bret harte and the san francisco literary life that influenced mark twain in the book the bohemians by ben tarnoff. i had found it on the shelf in the bernal heights branch of the san francisco library and bought a copy the day before we left. i never did post photos of that part of the day (i only posted about the afternoon cable car ride). however, that morning before the ride, i visited a bookstore while waiting to attend chanda's ballet presentation and bought the tarnoff book as i hadn't been able to finish the library's copy in time before leaving. anyway . . . . . to continue with sagamore hill (named after sagamore mohannis, the native american chief who had lived there in the seventeenth century) . .

 the rose arbor, with the family's pet cemetery in the distance.

from an autobiography:

as for the dogs, of course there were many, and during their lives they were intimate and valued family friends, and their deaths were household tragedies.

theodore roosevelt

 after the house tour we took a walk to the family beach . . 

 skipping stones . . 

 slipper shells and turkish washcloth . . (found online in connecticut college's digital commons, bulletin #39, seaweeds of long island sound, peg van patten and charles yarish).

 an oyster shell on oyster bay . . 

 getting ready to head back . . 

 this photo reminds me of the tiffiny glass window at the metropolitan museum of art titled "view of oyster bay."

 the path home through the woods . . 

 past the beautiful and big tulip trees . . 

wavyleaf aster, symphyotrichum undulatum

 we took a peek in the museum before leaving the park (for more photos of the interior of the house check out this website). by this time everyone was rather hungry for lunch, so we didn't stay long.

 special junior ranger certificates we received for answering the question, "what were the last five states to be admitted into the union?" (can you guess: see below for the answer.)

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since greg and chanda were turning into bears at this point, it was time for lunch. chanda had found a cafe in oyster bay that she was looking forward to trying. however, as we drove into town we ran into a huge traffic jam. there was a fall festival and hundreds of people and cars were converging in the town center. greg was driving and he was not in the mood for meandering through the throng, so we got on the road for the next town:

 where we found a local grocery store which didn't have quite the gourmet, new age salad dishes chanda and i prefer, but they did have good food. greg was happy to find cape cod potato chips and an everything italian hero . .

 which both chanda and i had to take a bite of . . and chanda and i found an eggplant salad, a green salad and chicken parmesan meatballs to share.

heading home across the triborough bridge . . 

 

 chanda running off to rehearsal . . 

ciao!

(answer to the junior ranger question about the last five states added to the union: hawaii, alaska, oklahoma, arizona, new mexico.)