Walking in Central Park: Recommendations and Links to the Walks

• Recommended Places to Go Online in Central Park: The following hot spots, courtesy of the Park Wifi, are excellent choices for working online while enjoying Nature, as noted in earlier posts:

1. under the wisteria next to the Rumsey Playfield, near the Bethesda Terrace and Fountain.
2. the Delacorte Theater, near the Shakespeare Garden and Belvedere Castle.
3. the Harlem Meer, near the Dana Discovery Center.

• Recommended Place for Casual Dining in Central Park: The Boathouse. Coming off a walk in the Ramble, I was glad to come upon the Boathouse and hang out at the outdoor bar for a glass of wine. The food choices are varied, and the place has that casual elegant vibe. Now high on my list for out-of-town guests.

• Recommended Place to Stroll on One Day: from the Pond at the southeast corner (near Grand Army Plaza) up to the Shakespeare statue (parallel to 66th St.), then north on the Mall to the Bethesda Fountain and Terrace, up the east path to the Boathouse, from the Boathouse northwest through the Ramble, to Belvedere Castle and the Shakespeare Garden. Exit at W. 81st St. (American Museum of Natural History).

• Recommended Places to Forget You're in New York City: the wilds of the north quadrant, in the Pond and in the North Woods. Exit the park at 110th near Frederick Douglas Circle.

By the way, 2008 is the 150th anniversary of the Greensward Plan: The Plan for Central Park 1858-2008. See the pages at the Central Park Conservancy website for a fascinating historical overview of the plan.

Walking Off the Big Apple's Walks in Central Park, May 5-8, 2008:

Day 1
Central Park: My Temporary Office Near the Bethesda Terrace
Central Park: A Walk, and Lunch at the Zoo
Central Park: Mapping Walks from Day 1 at the Park

Day 2
Central Park: Today's Office in the Shakespeare Garden
Central Park: Wandering in the Ramble
Central Park: Refreshment Break at the Loeb Boathouse
Central Park: Mapping Walks from Day 2 at the Park
Central Park: The Landscape as Painting and the Landscape Photograph

Day 3
Central Park: Walking Reluctantly Around the Reservoir
Central Park: Mapping Walks from Day 3 at the Park

Day 4
Central Park: My New Temporary Office on the Harlem Meer
Central Park: Mapping Catch-and-Release Blogging on Day 4 at the Park

Additional images from my week in the Central Park at Flickr WOTBA

Links to pertinent information:

Central Park Conservancy: The Official Website for Central Park
New York City Department of Parks and Recreation Park Wifi Information

Image: the south end of the Mall at the Olmsted Flowerbed. Central Park, New York. May 5, 2008. Pretty, huh?

Central Park: Mapping Catch-and-Release Blogging on Day 4 in the Park

View Larger Map

I'm still marveling that it's possible to fish and blog at the same time at the Harlem Meer on the far northeast corner of Central Park. But that's not the only thing I observed on my fourth and final day of Central Park excursions this week. The northern part of the park features some of those walk-about vistas that transport the strolling spectator into the regions of the sublime landscape. There's method in the landscape architecture. This section of the park, at least when I visited yesterday, seemed far away from the visitor-heavy areas farther south and more a place for the surrounding neighbors. That makes sense, because I don't think many tourists come to New York to fish.

As the map shows, I only walked through a limited area of the northern quadrant, and so I'm looking forward to visiting again, especially the Conservatory Garden along the east side of the park. Still, I liked sitting on the edge of the Harlem Meer and being able to look up from my laptop at this picture-perfect landscape, the window into nature, as images like these were once called.

More observations about catch-and-release blogging coming in future posts, along with highlights from my week "working" in Central Park.

Image: Harlem Meer, Thursday, May 8, 2008, approx. 4:45 p.m., Day 4 in the Park. See previous posts for walks from Days 1-3 (May 5-7, 2008).

Extra pix at Flickr WOTBA.

Central Park: My New Temporary Office on the Harlem Meer

Let's talk about ducks.

Fellow NYC bloggers, forget the link bait, because at the Harlem Meer, a serene pool of water at the far northeast corner of Central Park, it's possible to fish and blog at the same time. The rule of fishing here is catch-and-release, and the free Wifi provided by the park seems to be working fine. I'm writing from the edge of the water, just outside the Dana Discovery Center, but I should point out, in the interest of accuracy, that I am not currently fishing. The point is that I could if I wanted.

So, here on Day 4, around 4:45 p.m., I've now completed several walks throughout the park. This afternoon, I took the C train uptown to 103rd and then walked east through some of the prettiest parts of the park I've seen so far, areas known as the Pool, the Loch, and the North Woods. Here one sees more falling water features, naturalistic landscapes, and streams than in other parts of the park. While walking in the woods, I felt far, far, far away from the city. I got lost at one point and had to ask for directions, but several steps later I could see the Lasker Rink, and then I knew where I was.

Yesterday, a woman stopped me and asked for directions, because she, too, was lost in the park. She wanted to know how to get to Strawberry Fields. She said she had seen the Bethesda Terrace, the Boathouse, the Met, the Reservoir, and Belvedere Castle. She asked, "I've seen most everything in the Park, right?" No, like me, she had seen far from everything.

Image: duck and bird, Harlem Meer, Central Park, May 8, approx. 4:40 p.m. "Let's talk about ducks" is a memorable line from the play, Greater Tuna.

Central Park: Mapping Walks from Day 3 in the Park

View Larger Map

Ah, yes, the walk around the Reservoir. I would like to be a runner and run around the Reservoir. Sometimes I jog. Mostly I walk. What you see here before you is the aerial view of the Reservoir (a good French word) in Central Park, and I can assure you that it's flat as a pancake. Otherwise, the water would all tip out. I walked around the Reservoir yesterday, reluctantly as I noted, and so enjoyed going back to the Delacorte Theater though there weren't any plays in progress.

A word or two for those who might enjoy running around the Reservoir - signs posted there indicate that jogging, walking, running should be conducted in counter-clockwise fashion. Fortunately, anyone finding the jog, walk, or run tedious like me can bail out at regular intervals and join the slower paced crowd along the bridle path. In addition to walking, I'm sure I would enjoy riding a horse through the park. By the way, Olmsted and Vaux, the park's designers, were reluctant to add horse paths in the design, because at the time that's how people got around and they thought the park would be a nice break from the sound and mud of clomp-clomp-clomp. The pro-horse advocates got their way, kind of like the people that killed off congestion pricing.

Speaking of the Delacorte, the Wifi access is so good there that I think it would be possible to live-blog the summer Shakespeare in the Park productions of Hamlet and Hair. But it would be wrong.

Again, more images at Flickr WOTBA.

Central Park: Walking Relunctantly Around the Reservoir

This would be the Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis Reservoir between 86th and 96th in Central Park, and I just walked around it. Several people were out walking around this large body of water, but most were running for some reason. Many runners passing me were outfitted with heart monitors, expensive running shoes, and portable MP3 players, and I felt kind of out of it, as I was wearing a prom dress and carrying a MacBook. Just kidding about the prom dress.

I like walking, but I find strolling around the reservoir 90% tedious. Several times I ventured down to the nearby bridle path and walked sections along in there. It's more leafy. Over on the east side of the park, I thought about ditching the whole effort and going to one of the museums that line the park on the east, maybe the Cooper-Hewitt. But I moved on. On the northwest side, I walked down to the tennis courts and thought how much fun it would be to play tennis again, perhaps in a prom dress, and then I walked back up to the reservoir's running and walking path to complete the walk. The 10% I liked was watching waterfowl and looking at the midtown skyline from the north shore and maybe that one guy running without his shirt.

I'm back at the Delacorte Theater now (Wifi access again), and nearby hundreds of people are hanging out and sunbathing at Turtle Pond. The pace has slowed down. Olmsted and Vaux, when designing the park, couldn't at the time envision that hordes of people with heart monitors would be someday enjoy running through it.

Image: North side of the Reservoir, Central Park. May 7, 2008, approx. 3 p.m.

Visit additional photos of the spring week in Central Park on Flickr WOTBA.

Central Park: The Landscape as Painting, and the Landscape Photograph

Leaving the Boathouse yesterday, I snapped this photo of the boaters on the water, and later, as I was looking at it, the image reminded me of a 19th century landscape painting. That's by design. Olmsted and Vaux, in designing Central Park, created vistas that would resemble paintings, like the ones by their friends in the Hudson River School. They designed Central Park with the notion that city dwellers would encounter the sublime as they walked around different areas of the park.

Photographers in the 19th century often borrowed compositions from landscape painters, framing their shots in similar ways. In looking at the image above, I think I must carry around with me similar preconceptions of the sublime landscape and how it should be conventionally composed. In addition, my camera is an older Nikon CoolPix, so the resolution and focus is not nearly as crisp as in newer models. I've also dropped it a couple of times, and I don't know what that's done. This lack of definition contributes to the painterly quality of the image.