NYC: PART 4

Today I'm sharing one of the biggest highlights of our trip. Being a bona fide art fart, I was more than enthusiastic to get to finally see the Museum of Modern Art and see famous paintings in person that I had only read about in books since I was in the 7th grade.

You can't really begin to imagine my excitement when we realized that we could get in for free if we just waited less than half and hour in a line wrapping around numerous buildings near the MOMA. We arrived at 4:00 PM, just in time to be told about this exciting news happening at 4:30 PM. I imagined the wait would have been longer, so while we were in line, I saw a Starbucks and thought it'd be nice to enjoy a cinnamon dulce latte while standing in line.

Problem was, right when I ordered the drink, my husband called and let me know the line had already lurched its way up around an entire building, rounding the block. So of course, I pretty much grabbed a man behind me, practically screaming if he liked cinnamon dulce lattes. Startled, he nodded. I blurted out, "Okay-great-my-name's-Danielle-and-you-can-have-it!!!" Yes. It did sound like a yelled-out run-on sentence.

I dashed back toward my hubs, who was only a few feet away from the museum entrance by this point.

With our free tickets in our hands, this is what we saw:

Technically, this is actually what we saw before we found out about the free tickets. I don't know if the MOMA does it all the time, but we got those babies at no cost at 4:30 PM on a Friday.

While the guy was asking about tickets, I ventured a few feet away looking backwards from the main desk and took photos like a tourist. My husband was a little uneasy about his photo-fanatic wife snapping away in a museum, but it turned out they totally allow it. :) No flash, people.

Okay. HERE is where we started to see stuff after the freebee:

That man in the window almost tricked me for a piece of art, until he moved and somewhat scared me. I think we ended up taking shots of each other. Now that I think about it....we didn't venture over to those stairs. Dang it.

We didn't have time to explore this courtyard, either. We had a show to see at 8:00 that night ("Lucky Guy" with Tom Hanks) that was offered by a friend, so we were kinda hasty.

We did slow down for the architectural things, though.

And we slowed our pace for the 5th floor, where the masters' works were located.

Embarrassingly, tears started to swell up in my eyes when I saw this Monet in person. I'm not sure why...I guess it felt so real to see it in person, and it's like I could feel the emotion in his pieces. Maybe I was affected like that because his style is a type that I absolutely adore.

...along with this style!

And van Gogh's style, in addition to his words that he wrote to his brother.

This was another piece that I've adored from afar in books.

We got through the museum in less than a couple of hours, which is extraordinary for me, considering I spent 2+ hours in ONE ROOM during the Andy Warhol exhibit in Little Rock, Arkansas. My sister, who was with me at that time, was bored to death, to say the least.

I know we missed out on other great museums that New York has to offer, but someday we'll get to those also. The MOMA, in my opinion, is a must-see.

Have you ever been to the MOMA??