Eric had planned to run a 4-mile race on Sunday, but he was invited to golf with one of the big shots at the firm so he did that instead (and played a great game!). He still wanted to go pick up his number and t-shirt for the race, though, so we did that Saturday morning. The pick-up location was on the Upper East Side near Central Park, so we stopped there then walked over to the Park. We were much further North and East than we usually are on our Park walks, so we got to see things we haven't seen before.
One of the new things we saw was the Obelisk, or Cleopatra's Needle. According to the plaque at its base, it was first erected in Heliopolis, Egypt in 1600 B.C., then was moved to Alexandria in 12 B.C. It was presented to the city of New York by the Khedive of Egypt in 1881, and is the oldest man-made monument in Central Park. I liked it because it reminded me of DC, for obvious reasons!
Apparently, by the time the Obelisk was moved to Alexandria, the lower corners had broken off. So, the Romans had bronze supports in the form of sea crabs placed under them. These are replicas of the originals.
Other new things we saw were the Boathouse Restaurant and the Alice in Wonderland statue, which was crawling with kids.It was really cool to see some things we hadn't seen before. Central Park is just so big! Sooner or later we'll see all of it. It was just nice being out on a beautiful day (high 70s and sunny!) and seeing all there was to see.
Of course, my favorite part was the blooming trees. It's just so pretty. It is different than the cherry blossoms in DC, but still beautiful. In DC, the sheer volume of cherry trees is what is so striking. There's just so many of them, in such a concentrated space. You can just walk and walk along the Tidal Basin and nearly every tree is a cherry tree covered in pink blossoms. It's breathtaking. Here, the blooming trees are more spread out. There will be a patch here and there, and there's a greater variety of types of trees. They're all beautiful, too. What can I say? I guess I just love spring.
We've been collecting seasonal pictures of lamp posts in Central Park. Now we've added a spring one, and our collection is almost complete! Each season is so different, but so pretty. Which of these is your favorite?
After leaving Central Park we went down to the East Village for the Snuggie Pub Crawl, as you read about in my last post. Before we started crawling, though, we wandered around for a bit. And then I saw another wonderful sign of spring - a street fair! And not a Christmas street fair (although I do love those, too), but a summery one, selling all kinds of random goods and delicious food. I loved the street fair that took place on weekends on 8th Avenue near our apartment in the fall, so I'm excited to see the return of these events. The whole place was just swarmed with people. It was just such a beautiful day!What a great day. And on our way home, we saw a really fun street performance in the subway. This group had actually rolled in a piano, and they had guys tap-dancing! We stayed and watched them the whole time while we waited for our train. Man, I love this city.
VIDEO: Tap-dancing in the subway
And that was our Saturday! Of course, the beautiful weather didn't last long, and by Monday it was back in the 40s and pouring rain. It has been overcast and a little warmer the last two days, but by the weekend it's supposed to be back to sunny and OVER 80 DEGREES! Can you believe that? I will hardly know what to do with myself. And we have more things planned for this weekend, so stay tuned!
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