New York, Day 4: Libraries!

One of the initial spurs to planning this trip, besides the fact that Brent was working in NYC this week and that T. happened to have a spring break that matched up, was that the Morgan Library was hosting a Tolkien exhibit.  Here is my Tolkien nerd cred:  I have read the entire Lord of the Rings, OUT LOUD, not once, but twice, because I have two children and I love them both.  The exhibit is amazing and wonderful and everyone should go see it.  Sadly, photos are not allowed in the exhibit.  I consoled myself by buying the enormous book about the exhibit, so I can keep pictures of all the lovely and inspiring things forever and ever.

Because the Morgan is clever, they created a tie-in meal that included many Tolkien-mentioned foods.  Here is a picture of the lunch T. and I ate, Bilbo-style:

The library also has an exhibit on about early Italian drawings.  Here is John the Baptist, the saint who follows me around:

Our path to the Morgan took us past this notable New York landmark:

Also, we saw this ad with annotations on Madison Avenue, which seemed a particularly appropriate place to speak back to the marketing geniuses:

Because one library is clearly not enough, T. and I then headed to visit the New York Public Library.  Here is Patience or Fortitude (I don’t remember which one is which), one of the library lions.  My own personal librarian used to threaten that he was going to get them tattooed on his arms.  I have felt fond of the library lions since the kids were small and PBS ran Between the Lions in the afternoon.

We paused for some rest and to get spiffed up because we spent the evening at the theater.  Go see Hadestown.  It is amazing.  And the theater is pretty swanky, too:

Next up:  collapse into bed before we do more tomorrow!