NEW YORK CITY 2026: THE MET

 June 1, 2026

On my last day in New York City, I met A at Elbow Bread for one last strawberry lemon sheep's cheese Danish (my third one in three days), and then he went off to work and I was on my own.

I'm starting to feel a lot more confident in the city, and I was able to find my way via subway and walking to my next destination. The subway took me to the west side of Central Park, and then I walked through the park to the east side, passing by this deliightful bronze sculpture of Prospero and his daughter Miranda from Shakespeare's The Tempest, appropriately located in front of the theater that is home to the summer Shakespeare in the Park festival.

I eventually made it to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, fondly called "The Met," the fifth largest art museum in the world by gallery space. (In case you are wondering, #1 is the Louvre in Paris, #2 is the British Museum in London, #3 is the State Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg, and #4 is the National Museum of China in Beijing). Last year it had 5.7 million visitors, making it the most-visited museum of any kind in the United States.

The Met has a permanent collection of 1.5 million works grouped in seventeen separate departments. I only had a few hours, so I decided to start in the European section and see how far I got from there.

NEW YORK CITY 2026: MUSEUM OF THE CITY OF NEW YORK, A BIT OF CENTRAL PARK, AN ART OPENING, AND MOMBAR'S

 May 31, 2026

MoMA is a tough museum to top. With its 708,000 square feet, there is so much to see that you can spend an entire day there, and its eclectic collection has something for everyone. We followed our visit to MoMA with a visit to the Upper East Side Museum of the City of New York, a relatively puny 113,750 square feet. In spite of its small size, it contained one of the most expansive artworks I have ever seen: He Built This City (2004-2025) by Joe Macken, a work that rivaled almost anything in MoMA.

In 2004, New York truck driver Joe Macken began a little project in his basement that he worked on in his free time for the next 21 years: a scale-model of the entire city of New York. He had no prior artistic training, no building experience other than constructing a few miniature models, just a vision of his beloved city in miniature. He began with a single structure--30 Rockefeller Plaza. Using a scale of 1 mm = 10 feet and balsa wood, an X-acto knife, his home ruler, Elmer's Glue, and acrylic paint, he expanded from Rockefeller Plaza to Midtown Manhattan, then to the whole borough, then to Queens, Brooklyn, the Bronx, and Staten Island. After 21 years of work, he had created a 1,350 square-foot replica of NYC that includes every street, every building, every park, every bridge. Iconic buildings such as the Empire State Building, the World Trade Centre, the Chrysler Building, and the Woolworth Building are incredibly detailed.

In 2025, Macken's TikTok posts of his project went viral, accumulating over 10 million views. The Museum of the City of New York took notice, and the rest is history.

Mr. Macken's model is simply spectacular. Photos don't do it justice.

View from north end

View from south end

NEW YORK CITY 2026: MUSEUM OF MODERN ART (MoMA)

May 31, 2026

 On my third day in New York City, I met A & M at my new favorite bakery, Elbow Bread, then we took our morning treats to a park about a block away. It was really fun to sit on a bench and watch the residents of New York's Chinatown doing their morning exercises. One man was doing tai chi off to the side, a couple was playing badminton, and a group of about ten women were following a leader in a synchronized dance routine.  See a short video here.

M had an art opening that evening, so we said goodbye to her so that she could go do all the last-minute things that needed to be done, and A and I headed off for an artsy day.

We had gotten an early start because it was Memorial Day, and we knew the city would be bursting with the energy reserved for holidays. We made our way past massive St. Patrick's Cathedral, which takes up a full city block on Fifth Avenue between 50th and 51st street. However, I am not one to walk past a church when its doors are open, so I made a quick stop to take a look.

There was a service in progress, so we couldn't walk around inside, but I appreciated even this glimpse of St. Patrick's lofty Gothic Revival ceilings.

One of the wonderful things about NYC is the variety of architecture. Just down the street from St. Patrick's, for example, is the wonderful Art Deco-style International Building of the Rockefeller Center.

 

About this time we realized it was going to be very, very difficult to get to MoMA (the Museum of Modern Art), which we had planned to be our first destination. The Israel Day on 5th Parade was slated to move up Fifth Avenue between 62nd and 74th streets, starting at 11:30 AM. Activities were scheduled until 4:00 PM.  The theme of the parade was "Proud Americans, Proud Zionists."

NEW YORK CITY 2026: MAGAZZINO ITALIAN ART MUSEUM, DIA BEACON, AND A HOME-COOKED MEAL

 May 30, 2026

On my second day in New York, A and M had a great out-of-city excursion planned. We started by catching a train in the iconic Grand Central Station. If you look closely at the picture of A and me on the left, you'll see a red dot on the ceiling. It's a heart-shaped mylar balloon that floated there months ago (maybe Valentine's Day?) and hasn't wanted to return to earth! Those things last forever.

We took a 1.25 hour train to Magazzino Italian Art Museum in Cold Spring, New York, a village about 50 miles north of Manhattan with a population of approximately 2,000 and located across the Hudson River from West Point.

The museum, which contains a collection of postwar and contemporary Italian art owned by married art collectors Nancy Olnick and Giorgio Spanu, opened in 2017 at the site of a former computer chip factory (Magazzino means "warehouse" in Italian). It consists of two buildings, the original warehouse and a second building opened in 2023.

I tend to go a bit crazy in an art museum. I like to take a lot of pictures that I can then examine in more detail on my computer at home. Here are a few of the photos I took of my favorite pieces.

They had an exhibit by the Italian artist Alighiero Boetti that I especially liked. On first glance, you see a mercator map of the world.

But look closer and you'll see the world depicted by the national flag of each country. The embroidery for this and other works by the same artist was completed by Afghan women in refugee camps.

NEW YORK CITY 2026: CHINATOWN AND THE LOWER EAST SIDE NEIGHBORHOOD

 May 29, 2026

Bob had planned a weekend birding trip to southern Arizona, and it dawned on me that I could ALSO plan a trip by myself. Where did I want to go? No problem there! New York City to visit our youngest son!

With not a lot of advance planning, I could not find a reasonable non-stop flight, so I caught a red-eye flight that went through Seattle and landed me in NYC around 6:00 AM.  I had boxed up and checked a family heirloom for our son, a carved wooden silverware box, that I had to check, and luckily for me, I have two free checked bags with Delta, so that made taking this along FAR preferable to shipping it some other way.

Also luckily for me, I got upgraded on both flights to Comfort Plus, which made the flights almost pleasant. I got a kick out of this life-sized stuffy that the man across the aisle from me was taking home. The flight attendant did make him put it in the overhead compartment. 😊

I arrived at the JFK airport, retrieved suitcase and my well-packed heirloom box (whew, it made it), which I attached it to the small wheeled cart I brought with me, and called an Uber. It cost me around $100 to get dropped off at my hotel, but the ease and convenience was worth it this time. I had a great view of Midtown Manhattan from the Brooklyn Bridge.

I stayed at the  Hotel Mimosa, a small boutique hotel in Chinatown a few blocks from my son's apartment.

GUATEMALA 2026: ANTIGUA

 March 21, 2026

Our last full day in Guatemala was spent in Antigua, which served as the capital from 1543 to 1773 when the country was part of the Kingdom of Spain. As a result, it is full of Spanish Baroque architecture and Old World charm and has been designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Actually, Bob left early in the morning for a birding expedition, but I figured I could explore the Old Town area around our hotel by myself while he was gone. While I was looking for breakfast, I wandered into this park a few blocks from our hotel.

The "Fountain of the Sirens" was added in 1738. The four bare-chested women that are part of the fountain are quite eye-popping. It is no suprise that today the park is still a hub of activity, and when I was there, it was full of vendors, musicians, and tourists.

I enjoyed some pastries and wandered back towards our hotel. Shops across the cobblestone street from our room were just beginning to open. The street vendors were just starting to set up as well. Check out this guy bringing in an assortment of hats!

Before long, there was plenty of commerce going on. Under that pile of textiles is a little Guatemalan grandma selling her wares.

GUATEMALA 2026: LAKE ATITLAN

 March 19-20, 2026

We had an hour to kill in Flores in the afternoon before going to the airport. We had lunch in non-remarkable restaurant located on a floating dock, then walked around a bit near the seafront. Flores primarily exists these days as a jumping off point for Mayan ruins like Tikal, and yet it has a population over 45,000, ten times the size of the town I grew up in. The neighborhood around the restaurant was charming, and we even saw what appeared to be a working pay phone, something I haven't seen in years.

The Mundo Maya International Airport, just outside the city center, is very small--one small cafe, one large seating area, and one shop. Still, it is Guatemala's second-busiest airport.

I tried to get Bob interested in the birds flying around inside the terminal, but he wasn't buying it.

It was our first time, and probably will be our only time, on TAG Airlines (TAG = Transportes Aéreos Guatemaltecos):

The flight was short and uneventful. We were met at the airport by a driver who took us to our hotel about 30 miles away in Antiqua. (We had been told NOT to stay in Guatemala City.) The traffic was horrid and the drive took almost two hours.

GUATEMALA 2026: TIKAL NATIONAL PARK

 March 19, 2026

The next morning we had to be checked out of our charming ecolodge and ready to go by 4:50 a.m. We were picked up at 5:00 a.m. by a driver/guide named Roney, someone Bob had selected based on his reputation for birding expertise. Supposedly he is the best guide in northern Guatemala and we were lucky to have him as our guide in Tikal, our next destination.

Tikal was the #1 reason I wanted to travel to Guatemala. As a college student, I spent a summer on a study abroad in Mexico City. One weekend a group went on a field trip to Tikal, but I went with my friends to Acapulco. When the other group came back with their stories (but no photos as this was long before the digital camera), I was jealous and made the resolve that I would go to Tikal someday. That "someday" had come.

We got to the park just as the sun was rising, and long before we got to the archaeological site, Roney was scanning the treetops for birds, of which there didn't seem to be many. We spent a lot of time staring into the branches.

Not having binoculars, I had to be content with nature that was closer at hand. The red mushroom-looking thing below is a Helosis cayennensis (like "cayenne" pepper but not related except in color), a parasitic flowering plant.

BELIZE 2026: XUNANTUNICH, FAREWELL TO BELIZE, AND HELLO GUATEMALA!

The next morning we got up early to catch the water taxi back to Belize City, where we met our driver/guide who drove us the 2.5 hours to the archaeological site of Xunantunich (pronounced zoo-NAAN-tuh-nitch or zhuh-nan-TOO-nitch, depending on whom you ask). 

About halfway through the long drive, our guide spotted a Jabiru, a large stork on Bob's lifer list, which means it was the first time he had seen one. It has an impressive wingspan of 7.5 to 10 feet. Bob was very excited and got some photos of it on the ground as well as flying. This one is my favorite.

Shortly before the archaeological site, we stopped at a terrific little restaurant in San Jose Succotz called Benny's Kitchen, known for serving authentic local cuisine.

I had pibil, pork cooked in a pit and served with corn tortillas. It was fabulous--my best meal of the trip. We think Bob had cow foot soup, but he can't remember if he liked it or not.

BELIZE 2026: CAYE CAULKER DAY 2

 March 16, 2026

Bob had arranged a birding tour for our second day on Caye Caulker, which meant we got up at 5:30 AM. That was Joy #1. Joy #2 was when the first thing we did was get on a motorboat. After my experience on the water the previous day, that was exactly want I did not want to do.

However. it was a serene sea that we set out upon, and we never went very far from shore, and so my concerns were for naught.

Caye Caulker is actually two islands separated by a 20-foot channel know as The Split that was created by Hurricane Hattie in 1961. The southern island is home to the main village and tourist activity, and the northern island, where we were headed, is mostly uninhabitated and covered with mangrove forests.

BELIZE 2026: FLIGHT, A SPLENDIFEROUS HOTEL, CAYE CAULKER, AND MAL DE MER

 March 15, 2026

Spring break was coming up for me and we didn't have a trip planned. We decided rather last minute to take a trip to Guatemala, a country I've wanted to visit ever since I went to Mexico on a summer study abroad program in college. Bob connected with a tour company called Kimkim to work out the details. We decided to start in Belize as an entry point closer to Tikal, the place I was most interested in visiting.  

We left for LAX at 5:15 AM on March 15 and flew 4 hours and 40 minutes to Belize City, a relatively short flight for us. Belize City is the capital and largest city in Belize.

We were picked up at the airport by a driver who took us to the Golden Bay Hotel, a 30 minute drive. The hotel employee checking us in said, "Oh, looks like you got an upgrade."

That was an understatement.

Our very large door (on the right below) should have given us a clue as to what was inside, but we only noticed that later.