Day in Central Park

This afternoon, Brian and I took a break from job hunting to explore Central Park. It was a beautiful day (the last one in our forcast for the next week or so)-sunny but not too hot. I will use the map below to describe where we went. I think if you click on it you will be able to see a larger image (which will be necessary to read the small numbers in the orange boxes).

To get to the park, we took the B subway line to 81st street. This stop is right next to the American Museum of Natural History. Since Brian had never seen the museum before, we walked around part of it. It is a really interesting building; it looks a lot like a castle and it has a large lawn, which is quite rare in Manhattan. (This is the museum used for the movie A Night in the Museum.) The museum is number 27 on the map. These pictures are along 77th street. The main entrance is on Central Park West (but it doesn't look like much right now--it is under construction)--this door is only an exit.

After checking out the museum exterior, we walked into the park along the entrance at 77th street. We headed south along West Drive and followed the paths that curve around the Lake (map number 31). The Lake is really pretty. There were a lot of row boats dotting the water. We saw many people out walking their dogs, walking along the paths, running, and biking. It was a relatively busy park--and I'm sure it gets much more crowded on the weekend. Here is Brian posing by the Bethesda Fountain (map number 10).

The water in the picture's foreground is the edge of the Bethesda Fountain. We are looking out over the lake (you can see a few of those row boats on the water). The building on the edge of the lake is the Loeb Boathouse, a nice restaurant (map number 7).

From the fountain, we continued to walk around the lake along several of the small paths in the area of the park called the Ramble. I was trying to find the Belvedere Castle, which I thought would be a lot more visible that it eas in reality. Actually, in the park, it was uncommon to see the tall buildings of Manhattan, which was really surprising to me. The trees were really great for hiding all but the tallest buildings in the surrounding city. Anyway, we ended up back at West Drive and headed north this time. We crossed the 79th street transverse and I knew we had to be getting close. We passed the Swedish Cottage (#4) and the Delacorte Theater (#3) before heading up some stairs to the Shakespeare Garden (#5). Finally we passed through the garden and found the castle (#6). In my defense, it ended up being a very small castle. Still, located at one of the park's highest points, it allowed us to get a good view of the Great Lawn (#29).

Here is Brian looking out at Turtle Pond (#30) and the Great Lawn (#29), which is filled with baseball diamonds. The buildings in the distance are on 5th Ave and Madison Ave. We can only see the buildings because we are at quite a high point in Central Park.

Here I am at the base of Belvedere Castle. You can see how small the structure is.

This picture shows the western part of Turtle Pond, as well as the Delacorte Theater. This theater is the setting for Shakespeare in the Park, a summer program in NYC. Tickets are free, but you need to get up super early and wait in line for them on the day you want to attend. There is also an online lottery (which we are a part of), but there is no guarantee that we will get tickets. I would like to see the Merchant of Venice (Al Pacino is playing the merchant!), so those are the tickets I am trying for. Also visible in this picture are some of the large rocks, which are scattered all over Central Park. I wonder how they were deposited in this area geologically (glacier?).

Looking out over Turtle Pond & the Great Lawn (similar to the picture above minus Brian):

Brian and I both took pictures of us together (the next two pictures). I won't tell you who took which picture right away, but we need you to vote for your favorite. Which picture is best?

Picture A

Or Picture B:

We climbed the castle stairs (tiny spiral staircase) to check out the view at the top. Here is Brian inside the second castle level (out of 3 levels). They had a display on birdwatching, along with models of the birds you might see (including the hawk, above Brian's head).

On our way out, I took thic picture of the castle's doorway. I like the creature above the door, although I'm not sure exactly how to descibe it. It appears to be part dragon, griffin, serpent, and lion.

Here is the castle's plaque:

Here is a picture of the entire castle structure. It was a cute castle, but not too large. It was a great place to look out over the rest of the park though.

As we were walking south along West Drive, we cut in a little bit to catch this view from the northwestern part of the Lake (#31). Here we could several Manhattan buildings, since there was such an extended area without trees. Those row boats were still out!

We were heading back to the subway, but since it was such a nice day, we ended up walking all the way back to the PATH station at 33rd street instead. We exited Central Park at 77th street and headed west one block to Columbus Ave. We then walked south along Columbus Ave until we hit Broadway and followed Broadway to Columbus Circle. We were getting hungry at this point, so we were basically enjoying a relaxing walk while looking for food. As we passed Columbus Circle (#17), I snapped a few quick shots of the statue of Columbus on a high post in the center of the circle. Both of these shots are from the south (basically at #18) looking north towards tall Manhattan buildings on the left and Central Park on the right.

We continued to walk south until we got to Times Square (here is a picture at the northern edge of the area). There were a lot of people sightseeing and selling all kinds of things. There was also free Dr. Pepper being handed out (to promote their new cherry flavor), which I really enjoyed. We ended up stopping at Ruby Tuesdays on the square to have some dinner. We were seated on the upper level, so we had a nice view of people walking around (good for people watching).

It ended up being a great afternoon. The weather is supposed to get a lot hotter starting tomorrow, so I was happy to get out and walk for several hours today.