Things to Do in New York

Stretched in front of a black-lit backdrop of the New York City skyline, the neon-speckled bowling lanes at Spins Bowl entertain guests with bowling bouts inside the expansive Grand Prix New York facility. Brightly colored bowling balls barrel down the center’s 19 lanes and explode against pin formations, which echo into the lounge's plush seating area. Bowlers compare scores on their lanes’ large LCD projection screens while cheering strikes over beverages and American-style dishes from Fuel, the onsite restaurant and bar. In addition to its 12 public lanes, the bowling alley hosts private events, children’s birthday parties, and hamster-ball crash tests on seven VIP lanes.

In 1929, three highly regarded patrons of the arts joined forces to found an institution that would break away from the conservative archetype of an art museum. Abby Aldrich Rockefeller, Lillie P. Bliss, and Mary Quinn Sullivan could hardly have guessed that their mutual brainchild—The Museum of Modern Art, or MoMa—would someday transform into an archetype all its own. The museum’s original director, Alfred H. Barr Jr., moved to create the first-ever multidepartmental structure, with various departments devoted to architecture and design, film and video, and photography. These were in addition to the standard painting, sculpture, and visual-arts exhibits found in nearly every other museum to date. The public's response was overwhelmingly positive. After outgrowing two spaces, MoMA moved to its Midtown location, where it stands to this day. MoMA's initial gift of eight prints and one drawing has exploded to encompass a collection of more than 150,000 paintings, sculptures, drawings, prints, photos, and design pieces. This collection continues to offer a wide-angle view into modern art and has spilled over into a massive library that houses more than 300,000 volumes. Every day, art lovers from around the world make their way through the museum’s structure, stopping at galleries that house iconic works by Picasso, Bourgeois, Warhol, Rauschenberg, and others. A constant influx of exhibitions keeps MoMA's many walls alive in the spirit of its progressive founders.

Over the past 140 years, boating around The Lake in Central Park has transformed from a popular pastime to an enduring tradition. In 1872, a small Victorian-style structure was built to meet the need for housing the boats. Replaced in 1924 by a rustic wooden structure that remains largely mysterious to historians, by the 1950s, the boathouse was in dire need of repair. It was then that investment banker and philanthropist Carl M. Loeb and his wife contributed a sizeable donation to help create The Loeb Boathouse. The structure, officially opened in March of 1954, still stands and today it houses the famous New York landmark, Lakeside Restaurant, immortalized in When Harry Met Sally. The Boathouse, of course, still rents out rowboats during the warmer months, and has also recently begun offering bicycles for cruising about Central Park.