A Day at Yale

Hey Everyone,

I had some stops to make in New Haven... you know, breathe in a little greatness. I started with Yale's Art Museum (free to public). They have several Monet paintings in their collection. Unfortunately, only two were on display because there is some renovation underway. The good news is there are other museums on the road that should have some Monet for me :-)! Hanging next to him? Van Gogh.

In the same museum, there is a floor dedicated to African and Asian art. This is an African Chief's chair...isn't it cool?

This is an Asian Tomb Guardian. Also cool!

After this first stop (and while it was just barely misting out) I wandered through blocks and blocks of Yale's beautiful old buildings.

Next it was off to the Peabody Museum of Natural History (free on Thursday between 2-5p). What can I say... I love a good dinosaur museum! This museum is certainly on the short list of most renown for its specimens.

This is Archelon ischyros, the largest marine turtle species ever found. It probably weighed about 3 tons and measures approx. 10ft x 10ft. I am so glad that this isn't the kind of turtle I helped feed at Mote's turtle hospital!!

So I said farewell to the Brontosaurus - tried to get a picture, but just couldn't get a good one (sorry!) - and wandered over to the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library (free, public can see two floors). This is the library building...entrance is near that speck of light (bottom, center). The inside is very nice...cozy chairs and a multilevel glass cube in the center with shelves and shelves of old books. It looks very intense and there were 3 guards visible on the main floor, so I asked about the cube. He told me it is not air tight, but that only certain people can enter the area to retrieve books for researchers.

Currently, the main exhibit is Shakespeare with texts and some related items dating back to the 1600s. I wanted to stop here for two reasons. First, in all honesty, it's Yale and I'm not likely to be here again...might as well see all I can! Secondly, two items in their permanent collection were of interest: (1) Yale has a Gutenberg Bible (from approx. 1455) on display that was decorated in color by hand. It is believed this was the first book printed from moveable type in the western world & thus marks the beginning of the general application of the art of printing.

The other item I thought I should see was Audubon's The Birds of America (1827-38) - known as the Double Elephant folio because of its size. There are 435 engraved and hand-colored plates in four volumes.

As the rain started back up, again....I head north to Mystic. This is the Mystic River from the drawbridge into downtown.

I was a proper tourist this evening....ate dinner at the world famous Mystic Pizza (as in the movie), followed by some excellent local ice cream from Mystic Drawbridge Ice Cream. That movie must be 20yrs old (or more) now and I saw people outside taking pictures of the still famous sign while I ate. Funniest thing to me is that the food was good and the service was so-so, just like in the movie. Plus, the girl who brought my dinner said to me (as I sat alone): "Here you guys go, enjoy." I wonder, should I be worried that I didn't see the ghost at my table or worried that she did?

For those of you who just have to know what pizza I ordered, here you go. Sharmi, just skip this info...you will not approve :-). I ordered half spinach/ artichoke heart/pepperoni and half seafood delight. That's right....shrimp pizza! I knew I'd find it somewhere eventually. The artichoke half was better...I expected more flavorful shrimp.

I hope to have a little better exploring weather tomorrow....will write again soon.