When you’re in NYC, there is more to see than the sky scrapers. In the concrete jungle there are many wonderful parks. Some are made for fun and have playgrounds designed to be fun for children. Others are meant to be scenic parks with beautiful flowers and statues arranged in gorgeous views. Near the middle of Manhattan is Central Park. Aside from this well-known park are many other parks, smaller in size, yet equal in beauty such as Union Square Park, at Union Square, and Madison Square Park, at Madison Square.

Another such park is Washington Square Park. In this park, there are many things to see. In the park is a lovely fountain. There, people can climb over the short outer wall and sit on the steps leading down into the fountain. It is very relaxing to sit there and get a little mist from the splashing water. Although the fountain water may look clear and clean as it rises up in spouts and curves down into the pool, the water has been exposed to the elements and is actually dirty. For this reason, I do not suggest swimming in or even entering the water as some people do.

In the same park there is a statue right next to the fountain area. It is a statue of Garibaldi. If you go to the other side of the statue you will find a very nice plaque in Italian. If anybody reading this knows the translation please write it as a comment. For those who don’t know, Giuseppe Garibaldi was an Italian man who fought for Italian unification during the time that the French occupied Italy.

Also in Washington Square Park is Washington Square Arch which has the quote “Let us raise a standard to which the wise and honest can repair. The event is in the hand of God. - George Washington” inscribed on it. There are many ways to interpret this. I think it means that a standard should be established early on so that the wise and honest of later generations can repair the country to that level and that God decides whether or not the standard will be achieved.

On the other side are two statues of George Washington, one on each pillar. On the east pillar is the statue “George Washington as Commander-in-Chief, Accompanied by Fame and Valor”. On the west pillar is the statue “George Washington as President, Accompanied by Wisdom and Justice”. I think George Washington as Commander in Chief is accompanied by Fame and Valor because that is what he earned as Commander in Chief of the Revolutionary War. I think George Washington as President is accompanied by Wisdom and Justice because these characteristics needed, which George Washington possessed, to be a great president.

If you look through the arch from the southern side, where the quote is, you can see the Empire State Building perfectly line up with the middle of the arch. On special occasions such as Independence Day or Easter, the Empire State Building is beautifully colored to match the occasion.

Washington Square Park may not be as big as Central Park but it certainly equals or even passes it in beauty.

In the American Museum of Natural History, there is an exhibit for everything included in its title. There are exhibits for space, rocks and minerals, birds, dinosaurs, mammals, people, and more. There are enough exhibits to please everyone and to make the museum almost a heaven for smart kids. With realistic displays and informative plaques, the museum can be a great educational experience. Even if you are looking for somewhere to just relax your brain, the museum provides entertaining yet realistic models.

Rooms of African peoples, Asian peoples, and others contain actual artifacts and models of how the people solved problems along with descriptions to give everybody a full understanding. There are mannequins dressed like the real people were throughout time and set up in a scene resembling their habitats.

For astronomy lovers though, there are pieces of real meteorites on display. There are also scales where you can measure your weight on other planets. Of course, there is also a planetarium where many shows relating to outer space are given. If one should happen to enjoy being educated about the animals that lived before us, the dinosaur and prehistoric animal exhibit is wonderful to see. There are many fossils that have been put back together into animal skeletons. While seeing all the fossils, one could look at the size of those animals; see how large they were and how small the human race is compared to them.

Supposing one would prefer modern animals to prehistoric ones, there are many display rooms with land animals from many places and a special room for sea animal displays. In the room there are many displays going around the room but the largest display there is the giant blue whale hanging from the ceiling above the seats for a film about whales that runs continuously. If at any point a person should wish to learn more about something in the museum, there are many interactive computers there at all the exhibits.

The American Museum of Natural History is basically a really good museum which educates with artifacts, fun facts, and models so that everyone can learn something new. It has something for everyone and makes the exhibits interesting so as not to bore the public.

In the beginning of the summer, I went to a Digital Family Summit in Philadelphia with my mother and brother. At the summit, I went to a workshop where I learned to use a program named Scratch. Scratch was created by the students from MIT.