Last week when the weather was gorgeous I had a moment where I realized that at the end of the day I am going to be exhausted no matter what I do so I might as well spend some days really wearing myself out in Central Park.
Yesterday morning we headed over to my visiting teacher's apartment and she ended up feeding me lunch (how awesome is she!) so I called an audible and Declan and I headed to Central Park afterwards. There are no pictures to document this outing because I didn't have my camera but in the end I probably would have forgotten the memory card even if I remembered the camera so its a moot point. We entered around 72nd, passed through the quiet zone of Strawberry Fields and paid a short tribute to John Lennon. Then we scooted across to a bench near the pavilion above Bethesda Fountain. It was fun to make this trek because these were some of the exact steps that I took with Danny on our wedding day. I of course have walked through these parts millions of other times but our wedding day will be one that I will never forget. I sat on a bench, fed Declan and had the best seat in the house for people watching. By the way, what do all these people do for income? There were TONS of people out and about in the middle of a Monday afternoon.
While Declan and I sat in the shade, I read the plaques on the benches next to us. People can donate money to the park and I believe $75,000 can get you a dedicated park bench. I've always told Danny that if I were rich that's one thing I would definitely do. One of the benches was dedicated in memory of a lady who I imagine loved Central Park and it read "Unforgettable She Was". What a beautiful sentiment.
I find it important to mention here that while we sat and watched the amazing characters that NYC has to offer I downed 6 homemade chocolate chip cookies, complements of my other visiting teacher. (did I mention how lucky I am?). Declan and I hung around the lady of the fountain for a little while and then strolled down Poets Walk. There were musicians out in abundance and one man was playing a song on his saxophone that I swear was in a movie set in NYC. By this point, Declan had fallen asleep but I got this crazy idea that it would be super fun to take him to Heckscher Playground and push him in the swings. I ended up only checking out the playground because I realized it was silly to wake my sleeping boy to basically place him in the swing because we all know I really wouldn't be doing too much pushing. Plus maybe his first time on the swings should be with the whole family.
We exited the park at Columbus Circle and immediately I felt tired. Something about being back on the street helps bring reality back and the dread that the 3 hour detour might not have been the best decision. In the end I got back to our apartment and napped for 2 hours. All in all another day of falling in love again with the city.
