After the full moon, when the tide is the lowest, you'll find a century of fossils from a gone NY, trails of washed-out rainbow colored bottles, a graffitied shipwreck buried by time. Hundreds of years of history written in the sand.

Giant dinosaurs. And the rest of the museum is great if you also like giant whales and outer space and especially the life size dioramas of animals and cave people, which might be the very best Art in all of the city. Sigh.

When I first moved to New York, enamoured by its parks and museums and design firms and restaurants and bars, I never imagined that there could be much more to its geography than that. How wrong I was. My first drive across the George Washington Bridge was jaw-dropping - the cliffs of New Jersey are astonishingly tall, covered in a dense thicket of trees. But that was just the tip of the iceberg. Drive up 87 to the Catskills or the Adirondacks and you'll witness the Hudson River winding its way through spectacular scenery and unforgiving seasons. Now I can't get enough; just two hours up the road, it's like the city never existed. Perfect recuperation after a long week.

Joseph Leonard is one of my favorite cozy spots for brunch on the weekend. After a long week of work their avocado toast and a bloody mary hits the spot. Get there early or expect to wait, it's small and limited seating. Their sister restaurant Jeffreys Grocery across the street is also very good, but no expresso drinks which and I need my morning latte.

One of the only things I enjoy about taking the subway these days is seeing the defaced ads on the L train. Whether it's random chance, high schoolers or street artists the result is always good.