The Rest of the Trip – Wednesday

Wednesday was a fine day for me. Sunny again and a lot of walking. We walked as a group from our hotel to the southeast corner of Central Park. Ahh, trees.

Even the subway entrances are pretty here.

We broke into 3 smaller groups and went with our guides on a tour of the park.

I took lots of pictures. The juxtaposition of park and city made them both more beautiful.

Although extensively landscaped when it was built, starting in 1858, the many rocky areas were left as they were.

There are two ice skating rinks in the park, this is the more popular one on the southern edge.

This is The Dairy, which is now a gift shop. Our guide told us one of the reasons for the park was to fight the diseases that were becoming a problem in the now crowded city. Good quality milk was hard to get, so a dairy was installed in the park to provide it.

And yes, the Sheep Meadow once had sheep.

Now it’s a beautiful lawn and home for this gorgeous oak.

We walked along the divided Promenade, the only straight path in the park.

As we drew near I saw this sign, I asked our guide and he confirmed, they do still have American Elms in Central Park! The only mature elms I remember seeing were in my childhood, before Dutch Elm Disease took them out.

Farther along I saw this beauty, mature and healthy.

There are vistas galore in the park. Some include places where movie scenes were shot.

Some include famous buildings, like the peaked roof of the Dakota behind Jamie and Sean. Judy Garland lived there along with other famous people, but for me it will always be the place where John Lennon lived and died.

With all of that it is the trees that made the park special to me. There are over 17,000 trees and 200 species. There were beautiful specimens like this…

and more wild places like the Ramble. Our guide did a detour through there because we were showing such an interest in the trees and birds. Nice. There are small birds there that will take peanuts from your open palm. I saw it, but wasn’t quick enough to capture it.

Walkers, runners, bikers and carriages all have a place to be in Central Park.

From there we walked, again, back past our hotel to John’s Pizza.

We had all you can eat pizza and salad in an old building that had been a church.

We went to the 5:00 PM performance of Christmas in NYC at Radio City Music Hall. It’s billed as a Christmas Extravaganza and it is, with a real bus and live camels and a calf as part of a staged nativity scene.

It wouldn’t be the Christmas Season in New York without skating at Rockefeller Center, although the giant tree was not yet decorated. Jamie, Sean, Tia, Jacey, and David gave it a try. Jamie loved being back on skates even though the rentals hurt and the ice was crowded.

Afterwards we went for a bite to eat at Sean’s Bar and Kitchen. Had to try that place. I had a potato leek soup that was very good. By then it was around nine and we called it a night because the parade was the next morning! Another full day in the city.