Located at Central Park West & 79th St, the American Museum of Natural History is easily one of the largest museums in the world. I can’t remember the last time I’ve been to the Natural History Museum and my recent trip there did not disappoint me.

Over the summer I’ve started getting into wildlife documentaries, especially fish. In the Irma and Paul Milstein Family Hall of Ocean Life hangs a museum treasure: a ninety-four feet long, twenty-one thousand pound fiberglass model of a blue whale. The model is based off of a blue whale found along the southern tip of South America in 1925. The big whale in the room hangs as a reminder that ocean life is rapidly decreasing because of us and it is solely up to us to protect ocean life.

Another highlight of my day was the astronomy exhibit. The lower level had the entrance to the planetarium (which, unfortunately, I didn’t get to go to) and the upper level circling the planetarium were models of our solar system and the astronomy gift shop. It was interesting to see how all the planets’ and stars’ sizes compared to each other.

The third and last highlight of my visit were the dinosaurs. Unlike other museums, the Natural History Museum is extremely child friendly, they actually encourage families to bring children along. Taking their advice, I had brought along my toddler cousin, who is obsessed with dinosaurs at the moment, to the museum that day. Although I didn’t have time to read a lot of the descriptions of each display, I did learn a lot from my cousin’s rants about each dinosaur he dragged me past.

Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed my visit to the American Museum of Natural History. I highly recommend to everyone  to visit if they have the chance.