The title is pretty self-explanatory. I am going to run through a few places in this limited series for things to do and to eat while in New York City. This also means I can expand this series to other cities in the future, if I want to.
But for now, we will stick to one place to eat and one place to do something fun. People’s definitions of “fun” vary widely. Museums may be your idea of fun, or they could be the death knell of joy. We like to visit regular museums, art & sculpture, and the like, but we also enjoy other types of museums.
I am also aiming to highlight sites that are not frequently mentioned when you think of these cities. The Statue of Liberty, Empire State Building, Times Square, MOMA, etc. Those types of places won’t be featured here. I am looking for things that maybe engage other senses while also being fun.
Enter, The Color Factory.
The Color Factory is a hands-on examination of color. Is it mainly geared towards children? Yes and no. There were several children present when we walked through, and adults were also enjoying the museum.
It is a very photogenic place to visit. There is color, duh, everywhere! We first found this spot on Instagram, and the videos and photos we saw immediately drew us in. That, and looking for something that would get us out of the rain and cold. Win-win!
The world of colors and the sense of taste combine to begin our journey.
After checking our coats, we were treated to a rainbow assortment of fortune cookies. Each cookie had a different color and flavor. It was a fun way to awaken the palate. It was also a nice introduction to what we were about to experience. It was a standard fortune cookie with a flavorful surprise.
Toucan Sam would be all over the next room. We followed our noses to small, colorful vents and sniffed. Literally, breathing in the aromas of colors and the words that correspond to them. It was not a straightforward “you’re smelling cotton candy” or anything similar. The words chosen for each scent allow your mind to create a scent, and then you dive in, nose first, and smell something. Some areas were more pungent than others, but it was still a fun exercise.
After testing the olfactory sense, it was time to rest our feet and let our ears in on the fun. We put on headphones and listened to a prompt. The prompt led us to draw the person across from us and use the colored pencils provided. But it wasn’t a straightforward drawing session. We used the colors as a gateway to the inner workings of our drawing partner. What is their aura? What colors remind you of them? Things like that. It also asked us to stare at them and draw their face without picking up the pencil. That was hard, no lie. I did not do my partner’s face any justice. What I drew was round but also misshapen because I drew a circle too small and then overcorrected and made a bulbous circle. Straight to the bin went that paper!
We then entered a world of sound. And as I typed that, I read it in a Rod Serling Twilight Zone-esque voice. But we did enter a room with multiple percussion instruments, xylophones, and were tasked with playing along. By playing along, I mean using the mallets and making some music.
The next two rooms were explorations of brightness and darkness. Or, that’s what I’m calling it in my thesis for my non-existent paper on the exploration of color and society.
We first made our way through a room that looked like Barbie’s dreamhouse had exploded. It was a party room, and the only thing I thought about after leaving the room was how much of a pain it would be to clean all that confetti up.
The second room was a silent disco. No audible sound, unless you were wearing headphones. Once the headphones were on, the funk was all around, and you could let the music move you through the dimly lit room. It is a fun phenomenon to experience. You see people dancing and wonder what song it is. Then you join in and find out, and once you’re finished, you go back to being out of the loop for the dance party.
The last room took us back to our days visiting Charles Entertainment Cheese. Or, as he is more commonly known, Chuck E. Cheese. It was a ball pit. Take off your shoes and enjoy “swimming” around an inordinate number of monochrome plastic balls. This was just a fun way to end the journey. It was also fun to throw the balls at my partner, who said they smelled “like feet”.
If that’s not love, I don’t know what is.
Now for something to eat.
We were extremely stereotypical and went with the tried-and-true New York bagel. PopUp Bagels was our spot, and they hit the mark with these bad boys. Delicious and flavorful, while not being too heavy. The perfect balance.
John Kidde Writes 