We traveled to visit one of our favorite family spots--The New York State Museum--recently. This week, the museum had three special exhibits going on in addition to their year-round exhibits. Though the the paintings, artwork, and photographs of the "Before September 11th" exhibit were awe-inspiring, we could not take pictures of them due to the desire to preserve the pieces. However, we were able to photograph the "New York in Bloom" designer flower art pieces and the items from the"Gems and Minerals" exhibit along with the year-round exhibits. 
This is the Sesame Street exhibit. Flower artists created the letters
"A, B, and C"out of flowers:
Even Oscar the Grouch was made out of moss and flowers
at the Sesame Street exhibit:
One of the most moving of the exhibits, other than the Holocaust
exhibit, is the World Trade Center, September 11th exhibit. Here is
an actual fire truck from Ground Zero. Flowers put on the front of
truck are original and over ten years old:
This is part of a steel beam from the World Trade Center:
This is a recovery trailer from Ground Zero. It was used
by families who were awaiting news of their loved
ones on September 11th. Now it is filled with hundreds of their
signs used to search for their loved ones in the rubble,
cards, messages, momentoes, and framed/signed pictures:
This is one of our favorite exhibits, the mastodon:
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| This is our other favorite exhibit--the Native American longhouse replica. As we have a smidge of Native American Sioux in our genes, we really appreciate learning about this part of our heritage. |
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| This is inside the Native American longhouse. |
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| We ended our visit to the New York State Museum by checking out the New York gems and minerals exhibit. |
