Today was a fun day. We met Denise and Eric and their son Riley at Central Park. They were two of Brent's close friends when he lived here and were also roommates at one time. It was great to see them again and to meet Riley, who will be 2 in just a couple weeks. We headed in to the center of the park, called The Ramble. It was beautiful in that area. There are so many trees it's hard to believe you're in the middle of a city with millions of people! The view over one of the lakes was gorgeous!
Great day for a walk!
We wound our way around to the Belvedere Castle. What a view from up there!
This was taken from the top of Belevedere Castle. You can tell it's a beautiful day. I think the temperature was about 68 today.
After about 3 hours, Eric, Denise and Riley had to head back home (they live in The Bronx) so we walked out of the park with them and we went to find something to eat. Our plan was to explore the Upper East Side so we walked back through the park to start a self-guided tour. We saw the former homes of Joseph Pulitzer, Edward S. Harkness, son of a founder of Standard Oil, tobacco millionaire James B. Duke, financier Payne Whitney, Jackie Onassis and the Duke-Semans House that is one of the few grand Fifth Avenue residences that are still privately owned.
The Duke-Semans House is on the left.
Apparently, the tourists don't go to some of those side streets. We felt out of place there in our jeans, backpack and cameras! We needed a fancy dog to walk in that area too! There was a huge Polo-Ralph Lauren store that used to be the 1898 French Renaissance home of Gertrude Rhinelander Waldo. The tour book told us to go inside and check out the "elegant interior". Well, there was a guy in a suit at each door (sort of like a high class Wal-Mart greeter) and we didn't feel comfortable doing that. We needed to keep moving anyway since we were "burning daylight"! People were swarming outside the Metropolitan Museum of Art. We'll save it for another day.
We walked as far as the Guggenheim Museum, the only Frank Lloyd Wright building in New York City. He died six months before it opened in October 1959. By now we were tired and ready to call it a day. We found a subway about 3 or 4 blocks away and then figured out how to get to the one we needed to go back to Brooklyn. Took it to the south end of Central Park the walked the width of Central Park again but we hadn't walked along there before. Walked past FOA Schwarz (I would have loved to buy Macey something there but Conrad had me trudge on) and the Plaza Hotel.
The Plaza Hotel
They're working on part of our subway line so we had to do a little maneuvering but at least we didn't have to go to the scary one! They don't make their directions real clear to those of us who aren't used to dealing with it. But, we figured it out and made it both ways today. Usually they only work on them on weekends.
I'll leave you with one last picture of a reflection in one of those mirrored buildings. I LOVE those buildings!
Our total walking for today was 10.28 miles. I think it's early to bed tonight! I'm exhausted!
Until tomorrow.......
Conrad and Linda
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