If every day could be like this...

Wandering through Central Park should be one of the best things you do in your life, if you're doing it right. It's beautiful in the Fall, and the green of summer is mesmerizing albeit the heat can keep you at home leaving the Park to braver souls than you. Today was near perfect, and there wasn't much holding us back from exploring it for the first time as a family. We considered calling our friend Betsy, but we realized that this really was the first time we would wander this special place as a family, and we slipped up from Brooklyn with more giggles than sweat, for the first time in weeks. We couldn't have stumbled upon a much better day to find ourselves together and walking through Central Park without any kind of specific destination in mind.



Central Park as a whole is a bit of a wonder, certainly something to marvel at, at least, if you're looking through the right eyes. However, there are parts of Central Park that are some of my favorite places in the world, and the Conservatory Water is one of them. Sailboats for rent...the buildings on Fifth Avenue looming...The Met just up the road a bit. If you don't love Conservatory Waters you've either never been or you need some kind of therapy.



Zoey fed the birds, although I'm quite certain that she wasn't supposed to. It was tofu so at the very least it was an extremely healthy alternative for them. We watched the sailboats and wondered at the skyline all around us. We played in the grass and stopped to meet every dog on the entire East side of the park. We stopped to listen to a Jazz trio and watch a ballerina, and Zoey chased pigeons by the dozen. Dad found himself wore out by the end of the day, antibiotics and age working against what were once infatigable (Why isn't that a word? Why do we have to use indefatigable?) legs and enthusiasm. When Dad gets wore down, Dad gets crunchy, and crunchy quick, so we made haste for the subway and home where the rest that the doctors in Newark suggested I take was more readily available. Standing on the F Train for a dozen stops, and then walking twenty or so blocks of mid-town Manhattan likely wasn't what they were getting at.

As the day ended, and we hustled for the train, it was easy to forget that we just spent an entire day doing what a million people around the world would love to do, and fatigue gave way to gratefulness. We're such ridiculously lucky people it's not even funny...well, okay, it's a little funny, for us.