Oct 12th, 2010
A weekend in NYC, part 1
The three of us spent the first weekend of October in New York City. My brother and Jan’s brother both live there, as does one of my oldest friends (we’ve known each other since high school), who let us stay in her apartment while she and her family stayed with her parents a few floors up in the same building. Not only is her place huge by NYC standards (two bedrooms and free parking in the attached garage), but it’s just one subway stop from Grand Central, right across the East River from Midtown. Not having to deal with driving around and parking in Manhattan = lovely.
Here’s the view from the park right next to her building, in the morning…
…and at night.
We weren’t in Serious Tourist Mode this weekend, preferring to focus on hanging out with our families and friends. The weather was fabulous–we lucked out in that our visit took place during the two-day lull in NYC’s heavy rainstorms–so we spent a lot of time outside.
In addition to playing in the park near my friend’s apartment (a park which had some of the coolest playground equipment I’ve ever seen–climbing! spinning! what fun!), we walked around the city a bit. I am especially fond of being in NYC before 10 a.m. or so on weekend mornings, when everything is quiet and it seems that the city has just gone to bed.
We spent pretty much all of Sunday in Central Park, a place so huge and varied that even an entire day isn’t time to begin to explore it. We’d been there before, though–and Jan grew up in the NYC area and knows the park pretty well–so we knew which parts we wanted to visit. Sylvia wanted to visit the “sisters and brothers playground” (jump to 2:26), and then we hung out at the Central Park Zoo with our friends. After they went home (naptime for their kids), the three of us headed to the Alice in Wonderland statue.
What an amazing sculpture! I love seeing which parts have been made shiny by the touches of countless little hands. And I love seeing children crawl and climb all of it–totally in keeping with the sculptor’s intent. We spent a good half our there ourselves. The only thing that persuaded Sylvia to leave…
…was the promise of a ride on the Central Park carousel. This thing is over 100 years old and features handcarved wooden horses. It was originally set up in Coney Island was but moved to a covered pavilion in Central Park a few decades ago. It’s also huge, has a real calliope inside, and offers the longest carousel ride I’ve ever experienced: for two bucks, you get to go around (at a good clip, too) for about seven minutes!
One Response to “A weekend in NYC, part 1”
Thanks for giving me great ideas on where to go with the kids the next time we go to the city…that is, of course, if I can convince them not to go to the Natural History Museum!