Today was our last full day in the city. We started by visiting the Meatpacking to see Chelsea Market (and eat breakfast), and stroll down to Highline Park to the Whitney Museum. I feel like I’ve been hearing about the Highline Park for forever as an example of urban revitalization and urban greening. I’m really glad we saw it, although it was a gray cold day, and I imagine that the park would be perfect in the spring and fall. Someday maybe we’ll go back.

The Whitney Museum has been a highlight for me – it was designed by one of my favorite architects (okay, another one of my favorite architects…), Renzo Piano. I really love the way Renzo Piano designs spaces that manage to feel grand, but without making a person feel small and insignificant. He excels at designing to the scale of humans. He also has a way of sculpting light to make interior spaces feel radiant.

Anyway (I need to keep this relatively short since I really need to pack tonight), we also actually enjoyed the artwork in the museum. In addition to being designed by Renzo Piano, I also was excited about going to the Whitney so that we could see some artwork by Jasper Johns. The kids and I recently studied his artwork, so they were looking forward to it too. Unfortunately, half the museum was closed for renovations (which would have been nice to know in advance, but I swear there was no obvious notice on the many web pages I browsed before coming, but… I digress). So we could only see two of his works. I was also surprised to see that Jay DeFeo‘s piece, The Rose was also there. I had just learned about it when I researching Jasper Johns for the kids’ schoolwork, and I’ve been fascinated by it. I had thought it was in San Francisco, so it was a shock to see it hanging on the wall in the Whitney. It was just as powerful as I imagined it might be.

We had to bogey back to the hotel to get ready for our Lion King matinee. We all got dressed up and made the five minute walk over to the theater. I was blown away by that performance. The kids were vibrating in their seats. When Mufasa died, Duke nearly fell out of his seat, he was leaning so far forward.

Now we’re back in the hotel, and I should really be packing. We start making our way back tomorrow. We’ll get to Denver tomorrow. Spend the night to say good-byes and gather all our things. Then we’ll say good bye to Tim – he’ll stay in Denver to start his training, and the kids and I will head back to Guam. It’s shaping up to be a strange spring – we’ve got trips already lined up for the beginning of March, the end of March and the beginning of May. But I can’t think about all that now – I’m ready to fall into bed and then get up and focus on tomorrow’s travel. I had so much fun sharing New York with the kids. I think we planted some seeds so they’ll appreciate all the highs and lows that make up this city.