This is a view of part of the New York skyline with Central Park in the foreground. This picture was taken from inside the Natural History Museum.

The New York Museum of Natural History is enormous. It has substantial exhibits on astronomy, geology (including a huge room of precious stones), anthropology, and something involving just about every living creature known to man. They also cover a large number of extinct animals as well.

Fort Tyron park on the upper west side of Manhattan is one of the most peaceful spots in New York City. This view of the George Washington Bridge spanning the Hudson River is taken from within the park.

The highlight of the park, and maybe New York Museums for that matter is the Cloisters. The Cloisters is a branch of the Metropolitan Museum of Art which holds the medieval collection. In many cases, these works are displayed in actual Cloisters moved stone by stone from their original locations in Europe and reassembled within the museum.

The meeting room (above) and the Gothic Chapel shown here are both examples of that. The museum also features an impressive "treasury" of religious relics and illuminated manuscripts as well as the so-called Unicorn Tapestries.

Not far from the Cloisters in the center of the Bronx is the Bronx Zoo. It's rather amazing but actually all five boroughs of New York City have their own zoo with Manhattan's being in Central Park. The Bronx Zoo is the largest and most impressive of them. This, by the way, is a snow leopard.

Here we have a binturong sleeping in his nest. As veterans of many zoos across North America we can tell you that we have never actually seen a binturong wake up any longer than was necessary to yawn and go back to sleep.

One thing about the Bronx Zoo is that it is definately not cheap. It appears at first glance to be reasonably priced when you approach the entrance and buy your admission ticket. Later you'll discover that every "special exhibit", "attraction", and just some buildings require an additional surcharge. As a result, animals like this tree kangaroo find themselves in unusually high tax brackets. (Allright, it's not really all that bad.)

One resting lion and two very brave (or stupid) peacocks.