First Middle School Trip

I gotta say it is great to raise city-kids.  Some people see the appeal of some of your own grass and a place to park store your car.  But, my kids went on a trip to the American Museum of Natural History and were back in the school for lunch.  The B train stops on the school's corner.   28 minutes later we are on Central Park West and W81st St.  We did not even have to go outdoors once we were there.

6th grade trips are easy.  No breaking up into little groups.  No holding everyone's pencils.  The kids got their worksheets and we went directly to the Akeley Hall of African Mammals.



I got to sit back and appreciate the art that surrounds the dioramas.  Above that glass case filled with taxidermied beasts was this bronze relief.

The kids understood that these were not plastic animals.  They are the real preserved skins and hides of actual animals that were hunted so we could study them for ever.  The could deal with that.  


Then they realized there were baby animals there too.


It is old news, but there used to be a guy who would dumpster dive in Chinatown and using the skills of a taxidermist create new dead creatures.