Yesterday in NYC

Yesterday at the Circle Line, we bought this thing called a NY CityPass. It’s $65 and it gets you admission to the Circle Line (although you have to pay a little extra for the 3-hour tour; the 2-hour tour is included in the price of the NYC CityPass) as well as the Empire State Building, the Guggenheim, the Met, the MoMA, and the Museum of Natural History. Normal admission to the Museum of Natural History – as we found out today – is $30! My, how times have changed. We were glad to have the CityPass.

We were only at the museum about an hour. I still can’t believe we did two museums in one day….

Anyway, we headed straight for the Hall of African Mammals. The elephants are extraordinary! Next it was off to the Hall of North American Mammals – Alaskan brown bears are much bigger and MUCH fluffier than I thought! I wanted to take one home and snuggle with it.

Then we saw the room with the blue whale: the Milstein Hall of Ocean Life. I especially liked the polar bear. We were both impressed with the size of the blue whale.

Next, we visited the Ross Hall of Meteorites (space rocks!), the Guggenheim Hall of Minerals (snoozefest…), and the Morgan Memorial Hall of Gems, where they have the Star of India, the world’s largest sapphire.

After that, it was up to the 4th floor to see the dinosaur fossils. I think it would have Ben’s favorite part of the whole museum, except that by the time we got there, we were both completely worn out. Ben actually sat on a bench in front of the Tyrannosaurus Rex.

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Boston MA

On Sunday, we woke up kind-of late (which is sort of pathetic since we went to bed really early the night before) and headed over to the New England Aquarium. It was part of our CityPass, which is a booklet of free-admissions to a pre-selected group of museums/sites for a flat rate; the NEAquarium was recommended by a classmate.

The building design focuses around a large (five-story!) tank, where you walk up a circular platform and each floor leads to another exhibit. Unfortunately, what sounds cool really wasn't. Coral reef takes up most of the space within the tank so it seemed like the fish were crammed and swimming around crazily (more like the people trying to see in the tank were crammed and crazy); I don't remember many tropical fish (which is pretty essential to a coral reef, amirite?); and there were about two or three sharks and one "pretend" shark (I can't remember the name of the fish, but basically it's anatomical structure is similar to that of a shark, for defensive purposes).

One of the floors had a petting area, and I guess growing up in Florida and having full access to SeaWorld, I expected stingrays. Well, if you were able to make it through the throngs of children, you could pet a couple of horseshoe crap (yawn) or "gently" touch starfish "under the water" (I put that in quotes because the majority of kids/parents did not heed to the rule).

Reasons to actually go to the aquarium (and I wouldn't recommend paying full price):
(1) Jellyfish tanks -- beautifullllll
(2) Penguin exhibit -- though it was down for cleaning, it was an open area (unlike SeaWorld) so you could actually hear the penguins. Especially entertaining were the Rockhopper penguins which make this really absurd cackling call as they throw back their heads and shake them violently. Hilarious! I think I made Jonathan make that noise about ten times after leaving that floor. :D
(3) Sea turtles -- I had never actually seen a full-grown sea turtle in person, and their size was really stunning. Luckily, we happened to be on the top floor (looking down into the tank) as they did one of the scheduled public feedings. I think we stood there for about ten minutes just watching them gobble up lettuce leaves.
4) Taking pictures with the sexay mascots. (The turtle is better)

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Seattle Cruise

Argosy Cruise – Don’t be put off by the term “cruise” as the Argosy Cruise takes only about 2 hours. However, during that time, you’ll see the city of Seattle from arguably the most natural and beautiful vantage point: the water. There are four daily tours that run year-round from the Seattle, Lake Union and Kirkland City Docks. All have live narration, wonderful views and feature some of Seattle’s most famous places. When my kids came to visit last summer, we purchased the City Pass, which includes the Argosy Cruise. The City Pass is a discounted package that allows you to see 5 of Seattle’s most famous attractions – all of which I’ve described a bit in this series. After seeing all 5 sites, the kids were adamant that the Argosy Cruise was by far their most favorite. Not only does the cruise include tons of great education regarding the area, its history and dissertations on topics such as how the cargo ships function, but there’s also great stories such as why a certain hotel that extended over the water had to be temporarily shut down. I won’t ruin that story for you, but will highly recommend taking a couple of hours to enjoy this relaxing cruise.

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The New Houston CityPass

The Houston CityPass costs $34 for adults and $24 for ages 4-11. It includes tickets to the Houston Museum of Natural Science, the Space Center on the grounds of NASA, the Downtown Aquarium, and the Houston Zoo. In addition, the booklet comes with several options: admission to either the Health Museum or the George Ranch Historical Park, a living history center on a working ranch; and a visit to either the Museum of Fine Arts or the Children's Museum of Houston.

The price of the booklet typically works out to about half that of individually purchased tickets, and it also includes transportation directions, a map, hours and information compiled by National Geographic Traveler magazine about dining, shopping, neighborhoods and nightlife.

Most attractions allow CityPass holders to avoid waiting in line for tickets once they get there.

Ticket booklets are valid for nine days from the first day of use.

You can buy the Houston CityPass from www.citypass.com, at any of the participating attractions, or from the Greater Houston Visitor Center at City Hall, 901 Bagby St., 800-446-8786.

CityPass offers similar ticket booklets for attractions in New York, Atlanta, Boston, Philadelphia, Toronto, Chicago, Seattle, San Francisco, Hollywood or Southern California. Some of these passes have added attractions this year, including for the Seattle CityPass, the Experience Music Project and the Science Fiction Museum; for the Philadelphia CityPass, the Eastern State Penitentiary, a historic site; for the New York CityPass, an option to do either the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island Museum or the Circle Line cruise around Manhattan; and in Chicago, an option for either the Hancock Observatory or the Sears Tower.

CityPass also offers discounts for certain transportation extras, like savings on a guided bicycle ride over the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, a trolley tour in Boston, or a Double Decker bus in New York City.