Wednesday, May 2, 2012

New York: Central Park

I knew from the moment I booked my trip that I would be spending an extensive amount of time in Central Park. I had a huge list of things I wanted to see there, and actually made it to most of them! 

I made two rounds around Central Park on my trip - one with X after a Sunday brunch, and one with M when she was finally off work on Monday... and both trips were awesome and different. 

Strawberry Fields and the John Lennon Imagine mosaic - it was ridiculously crowded and took me a good 5 minutes to get a shot of just the mosaic without any weirdo tourists sitting on it. Why do you need a photo WITH the mosaic??

 
Belvedere Castle! It was so cute - and X and I went in and up to both levels when we were there on Sunday. Unfortunately, the inside was closed when M and I went back on Monday.

View of the Turtle Pond, playing fields, and the skyline from the top of Belvedere Castle! And yes, we saw turtles... so cute!

A tree starting to bloom along our walk.

The Mall and Literary Walk - I can totally imagine how awesome it is when the trees are all in bloom!

The Lake and the Loeb Boathouse - it was the first nice day in a while and there were a bunch of people out with boats!

Bow Bridge. This was my favorite bridge - I love how curved and lovely it is.

View of the skyline from Balcony Bridge.
In addition to everything else, X and I also visited Bethesda Terrace, and Shakespeare Garden and Charles B Stover "Whisper Bench." I'd have loved to have taken a photo at the bench, which was pretty neat, but unfortunately when we arrived at it, it was occupied by this completely douchey guy and his two lady friends. The women were actually nice, and humored X and I as we tested the "whispering" function (it didn't work), but the asshole totally heckled us. X went all sorts of NY on him, and honestly? He deserved it. You're in a public park on a bench that is in the middle of a garden, you aren't "entitled" to privacy.

Anyway, we still had an amazing time wandering around, and it was really cool to see all the New Yorkers out enjoying the warm spring day!

 X and me taking a rest during our massive walk!

When M and I went back on Monday, she was dying to go to a few museums. Unfortunately for her, only one was open on Mondays. Fortunately for me, it was the one I most wanted to visit - the American Museum of Natural History!

The building itself is awesome, and as soon as you walk in, it's even more awesome! We spent a good part of the morning in the museum, wanting to see as much as we possibly could.


One of our favorite parts was the giant blue whale replica that was hanging in the Ocean exhibit...

And how could you not love the T-Rex???

The triceratops was my favorite dinosaur as a child, so I had to grab a photo with him!

After the American Museum of Natural History, we trekked back across the park to the East side to see the MET. It was a huge bummer it was closed, but the building is so impressive it was totally worth the walk! Plus, we'd gotten a tip that the best pretzels in NYC were at the stand by the MET, so we timed it perfectly to enjoy a snack there!



Central Park was a huge highlight of the trip for me. I loved hanging out there, and I can see why it's such a beloved part of NYC!

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