NEW YORK CITY: NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM THE DONALD JUDD STUDIO AND HOME

 May 2022

Andrew suggested two more places for us to visit while he and Michaela were at work. The first was the American Museum of Natural History (AMNH) on Manhattan's Upper West Side across from Central Park. 

The AMNH campus is HUGE. There are 20 interconnected buildings and 2.5 million square feet of space. Obviously, we weren't going to be able to see it all, so we had to be choosy about where to go. On Andrew's recommendation, we headed for a new insect exhibit, the "Insectarium."

This is the "Pollination Portal," which shows how pollination works.

I loved the butterfly displays. We've recently traveled to several tropical areas where the butterflies are much more plentiful than they are in my desert area, and I have become more interested in the many varieties.

The magnifying glass means you can spin the wheel and look at butterflies and bugs up close.

The huge model of multiple combs of a beehive is unique.

TEXAS PANHANDLE: BUFFALO LAKE NATIONAL WILDLIFE REFUGE, THE PANHANDLE PLAINS HISTORICAL MUSEUM, PANHANDLE QUIRKS

 March 20, 2021

Our first stop of the day was a trip to Buffalo Lake National Wildlife Refuge, 7,664 acres of protected prairies, marshes, and woodlands. 

Roadside sign on our way to the refuge

Once inside the park, we drove on a dirt road (Bob's favorite kind of road) that made a giant loop. The unimpressive scenery mostly looked like this:

We saw all of these signs, but didn't have the opportunity to avoid treading on any of these critters:

After this not-too-exciting foray into what didn't seem to be much of a refuge (at least in my opinion--Bob may feel otherwise), we headed to the Panhandle Plains Historical Museum. Built in 1933, it is part of the West Texas A&M University campus in the town of Canyon.

NORTH DAKOTA: BISMARCK, NORTH DAKOTA HERITAGE CENTER AND SICKIES GARAGE

September 16, 2019

On our last morning in North Dakota, we spent some time in the North Dakota Heritage Center and State Museum, located on the capitol grounds. Called the "Smithsonian on the plains," the original building opened in 1981, and an expansion that added 127,000 of space was finished in 2014.

 They have a large collection of fossilized remains, including this huge mastodon skeleton.

The displays are creatively placed, often showing the animals in conflict.

TEXAS: DINOSAUR VALLEY STATE PARK, THE FORT WORTH STOCKYARDS, AND THE Y. O. RANCH STEAKHOUSE IN DALLAS

A life-sized diorama near the exit of Fossil Rim got us ready for our next destination, DINOSAUR VALLEY STATE PARK, located just a few miles away.

Dinosaur Valley presents an epochal contrast to the living animals of Fossil Rim. This place is haunted by the ghosts of dinosaurs past who have left their heavy footprints in what was once mud at the edge of an inland ocean, but which has since become hard stone.

 The gloominess of the late afternoon added an appropriate sense of mystery.

 A flat rock bed just under the surface of the water contains the first sauropod footprints ever discovered. Sauropods are among the largest animals ever to live on land.