Central Park

There were lots of places on this trip that will stick with me, but my strongest memory (this is being written 5 days after getting back) will be of my early morning walks in Central Park. I'm always up well before the others, restless and in need of coffee. Each day I wandered a different route and kept finding new spaces and features -- and I never even made it north of 79th Street, so I never saw two thirds of the park. Every morning the roads were filled with runners and bikers and the paths had their share of dog walkers and strollers, but I could still find quiet places and lonely trails.

One of the things I liked most about the Park, compared to so much of the rest of the urban jungle, was that there remained some semblance of the original landscape. The topography has been modified, the lakes reconfigured and enhanced, and the vegetation heavily managed, but at least there were hills and valleys and trees and outcrops of glacially scoured metamorphic bedrock.

Despite my different paths, every day found me at the little bakery concession at Mineral Springs, next to Sheep Meadow. It was a pleasant place to enjoy coffee - cool and quiet, but still bustling with folks out for walks, meeting up with jogging partners, or reading their NY Times over coffee. The social scene was fascinating, particularly the canine one, as all the dogs seemed to know each other and were always excitedly greeting friends and renewing acquaintances. I'm not a dog owner, but I thought that if I were a dog owner, or if I were a dog, I would much prefer Central Park to the tyranny of Seattle's strict rules and off-leash war zones!

I took hundreds of pictures in Central Park of trees and fountains and bridges and shorelines, but most seemed to be taken of skyscrapers rising above lawns and trees and lakes. Something about the stark juxtaposition of nature and city, the dramatic architecture, and the blue skies was compelling.