here are some random fun pics from our trip to nyc in september of 2006. we spent most of our time either looking at dinosaurs or going to zoos. it rained the first two days of our trip, which made it difficult for us to sightsee. i had really wanted to see dinosaurs, go to zoos, and see the statue of liberty. due to the rain, slow transportation, and our resulting general fatigue, we only managed the first two. but this trip also taught me a valuable lesson: i really like LA, and i don't think i'd ever want to live in NYC. perhaps i'm a clean freak, but the city was just too dirty for me. the subways are really dirty, have no bathrooms, and really aren't that convenient/fast. also, not a single bathroom i visited had toilet seat covers. this may not matter for guys, but for someone with the bladder of a bird, it matters very much. still it was a fun trip overall. we got to eat cannolis and grilled cornbread/mozzarella sandwiches in little italy, fried dumplings and fresh soy milk in chinatown, and eat tons of great pizza. we also got to wander around ground zero, wall street, nyu, times square, and parts of central park. i even got to talk to some leather daddy on the subway late one night.

t-rex sequence with nick. t-rexes are nick's favorite and i think he often fancies himself one. since it was raining that day, we decided the museum would be perfect. apparently the american museum of natural history has like 99% real dinosaur bones in its exhibits. it really was very cool, and we pretty much spent the whole day in the two dinosaur wings.

nick's best impression of a t-rex

big nick with big al

nick having a screaming match with a fossil

nick chillin' in front of a mastadon... or a mastodon vomiting nick out

...still screaming

nick beating up on a raptor

now a front snap kick

nick getting massaged by a prehistoric bear

nick eyeing an alligator-like creature

nick scratching the chin of a dimetrodon, one of his favorite pseudo-dinosaurs

before departing his beloved dinosaurs, nick poses one last time in front of a pterosaur

here we are in battery park, where you go to take the ferry to ellis island and the statue of liberty. unfortunately, since it rained both thursday and friday, and we were late on saturday, all the tickets sold out and we never got to go.

view from the 86th floor observation deck of the empire state building. when we gave up on the ellis island/statue of liberty thing, we thought we'd have better luck with the empire state building. okay we were totally retarded. by the time we got up to the deck, after waiting in line for i don't know how long, i didn't even want to look. but since it was such a pain in the ass, i had to at least take some photos.

this guy is from the bronx zoo. as soon as we walked up, this dude ran up to us, halted, and let out this single bark. then he proceeded to stare us down for like five minutes. it was most remarkable.

nick and john inside turtle egg shells at the central park petting zoo

this sea lion from the central park zoo kept playing dead or something. he would rise to the top, take a breath, then go completely limp and bounce off the bottom of the tank. he did this over and over and over again. it's was pretty damn hilarious. at one point, mid-fall, the other sea lion in the tank almost swam right into him. i was kinda hoping for the collision ;)

here are harbor seals. they were kinda boring, especially after the sea lion, but pretty nonetheless.

we couldn't figure out what type of bird this was. i didn't know cuz i hate birds, and nick and john didn't know cuz they suck.

monkey leaping through the air with a stick. we were really hoping he'd put on a show and hit someone with it, but alas it remained peaceful.

more monkeys! can you tell i like monkeys?

some pink bird in the rainforest area. sorry i have no clue what this is cuz, like i said earlier, i hate birds. but i thought this one would make a nice photo, so i made an exception and shot it. psycho puffin

when we first met ida, the polar bear, she was just napping in the sun. when we came back later, she had wedged herself against a rock and the plexiglass and was showing off for everyone. she definitely enjoyed the attention.

hand to hand

here is robbie the penguin. nick and john named him this for some reason. it was apparently molting season for the penguins so they couldn't swim, and most just stood around perfectly still. but not robbie. no, robbie was walking around all over the place and had managed to smear shit all over his tummy too. we had actually come cuz we heard about a pair of gay penguins in this exhibit. we never did figure out who they were, but robbie made our visit worthwhile.

bird chillin' on a book

othello the cow. we got to pet him, and i got to touch his nose!

nick made me take a photo of this guy cuz he's got a "sneer"

dude, check out these dangling things on this goat's neck	nick being a dork	nick back at home with his new t-rex
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