Recently back from a trip to New York City and I wanted to share a bit of the trip with you.

So what does a potter from Western North Carolina do in NYC?  EAT! …and tour museums.

For my birthday I booked the NY Nosh Tour with The Enthusiastic Gourmet and had a FABULOUS time touring the Lower East Side and eating yummy foods!  Our guide was great, giving us both the history of the area and the food.  I even had the birthday song sung to me by The Pickle Guy!

I also fed myself on:  Telepan lunch (gourmet style but the food is left to its essence, not overpowered with flavor combinations), Momofuku Milk Bar cornmeal cookies (YUM!!!!), Eataly (Fun for foodies – grab a glass of wine and browse the overcrowded shelves of Italian specialty foods), Northern Spy (Good food at a decent price and nice, casual atmosphere), hot pretzels at a sidewalk cart and much, much more.  All, I must say, would’ve tasted better on some handmade plates!

Which brings me to the wonderful museums I visited:

The Brooklyn Museum has a great collection of Asian ceramics and Islamic ceramics, among other fabulous works of art from around the globe.  I was thoroughly impressed by their collection and exhibition space.  I have used their website for images and info to teach the Ceramic History class, so it was great to see some pieces in real life.

The Metropolitan Museum of Art is obviously one of the world’s greatest collections of art from around the world and from every era of human creativity.  It would take me days to go through the entire building and so I instead focused on what caught me first – Greek and Etruscan ceramics.  WOW!  Another online museum worth browsing and used for the Ceramic History course I teach at Southwestern Community College.

MOMA, or Museum of Modern Art, was also a wonderful place to pass some time looking at fabulously beautiful objects.  They have a section on design which should not be missed if you are interested in ceramic art!

Other museums I visited included the Natural History Museum, where my nephew cannot get enough of the giant dinosaur exhibit and the Tenemaet Museum where I learned about an Irish family that came to American in the mid 1800’s and all the hardships they had to go through, including living in this very small apartment.

While I am listing places to visit in NYC, I must mention a few places I did not visit this last time, but are well worth the visit anytime in NYC:

Greenwich House Pottery – exhibitions and classes.  Worth a look.

92nd Street Y ceramics program. – Check out the facilities and class schedule!

Dai Ichi Arts – make an appointment to see some incredible Asian ceramic art!  In a gallery, you can touch as well as look, unlike at a museum where hands are off limits!

All told, it was a wonderful vacation and time spent with my sister and her family.