Thursday Night in Times Square

So, on Thursday, things didn’t go according to plan. The camera stayed in the hotel room during the day. We received email notice that our attempt to win ‘Shakespeare in the Park tickets through the lottery had failed. The Guggenheim was closed. (More about the Guggenheim in another post.) Central Park is much bigger than we realized. Our feet still hurt from the day before. And, yes, that would be a slight note of whining that you hear.

We took the Subway up the west side of Central Park intending to get off at the American Museum of Natural History. Well, we got off one stop early and walked north and arrived at the museum just as it was opening. We had a great morning: we saw the Giant Squid in mortal combat with the Whale, we saw the Heilbrunn Cosmic Pathway and we saw the Hayden Planetarium program. Well, we didn’t see all of the planetarium program, The planetarium was awfully dark, and the chairs were very soft and we didn’t get to bed until 2. We ate lunch there too, after we woke up.

After lunch we took the Subway to the south end of the park, across to the east side and up Eighth Ave., (2 transfers! and we discovered later that there’s a bus for each of the cross-park streets.) to the stop nearest the Guggenheim. The sign said, “Closed Thursdays” so we walked back south to the Metropolitan Museum of Art. We got lost in there – several times! We also received complementary tickets to The Cloisters – a collection of Medieval Art and Architecture located way at the north end of Manhattan. It’s embarrassing to admit, since we were so into using mass transit, but we took a taxi back to the hotel. There was time for another nap before The Social – finger food, beer and wine (sorry kids – how does left over pizza sound?)

We devoted the evening to Times Square and had a great time – even though I’m still not really sure if there is an actual place that is Times Square. I’d say the the New York Times Building. That’s on 40th street and 8th Avenue. Except for the absence of the Times building, 42nd Street and Broadway is a strong candidate, but it would be nice if there were something square there. The folks who really care say that its the intersection of 7th and Broadway (nope – not square). The photos of the evening would convince most folks like us (residents of Denver, near downtown) that the entire population of New York was in and around Times Square to spend the evening. In fact, we ran into friends from Denver. That happy interaction didn’t keep us up too late, we were in bed by midnight.

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Lime Light

A night on the town – that’s what we had – and not just any town, this is New York!

We went off Broadway, literally, to 340 West 50th Street – the New World Stages, to see “Peter and the Starcatcher”  (at least most of us did.) It’s worth all those Tony awards (5). We saw a few other marquees on the way there. Then after the play was over, we hopped a subway back down to the Empire State Building (at least most of us did) for a night view of The City before hopping another subway back to 340 West 40th Street and the Staybridge Suites.

Getting to bed at 2am was brutal, but it did make us believe that New York never sleeps. There were still people going places – and still places to go – when we quit.

 

 

New York

We went to New York. Landed at LaGuardia Airport on a Tuesday – took off from LaGuardia the next Saturday. At LaGuardia, we found a kiosk for MTA weekly passes that allowed us to ride any bus or subway train that we wanted during our stay. We took the M60 bus to the the Astoria Boulevard stop and then caught the N-line to Times Square. From there, we dumb-lucked ourselves out of that maze and onto 40th Street and wheeled our luggage from Broadway toward 9th Avenue where we had reserved a room at StayBridge Times Square. We bought a couple pizzas on the corner of 40th and 8th, sodas for the kids and wine for the grownups and collapsed into sleep.

Here are some pictures of Wednesday as we walked to Times Square and then to Grand Central Station and the Chrysler Building. Then we took the subway a couple stops south (down) to 14th Street and walked a couple blocks west to Highline Park. We walked North(up) end to end on the Highline, ending up at around 30th Street and walked to the Empire State Building. Cool!

At the Empire State Building we bought the New York City Pass which saved us some money on admission to some of the things we wanted to see. One of the things that we had not expected was a second admission to the Empire State Building after 10pm if we used it the same calendar day.

Seedlings

phioto of radish seedlings in raised bed of Celebration Community Garden
I see radishes!

Snow fell. Snow melted. We planted seeds. Now the seeds have sprouted.

This is very exciting to me. So, like any proud papa showing of endless pictures of his kids doing nothing in particular, I’ll probably be posting shots with observations like “Oh, look! Now the Carrots are above ground.”

 

photo showing new garden with new fence
The new fence is in!

Another sign of progress is the fence. I hope it feels to everyone like a well cared for and worthy garden. I think that the fence carries the sense of stewardship and commitment. I hope that its perceived that way rather than as proof of exclusivity and exclusion.

 

Lilacs

Oneof my favorite rites of spring is the celebration of the blooming of the Lilacs. There’s an old Lilac bush in our backyard that is willing to over-perform if the weather conditions are right. This spring, the freeze/thaw cycles literally nipped most of the Lilac clusters in the bud. This survivor made me happy.

May Snow Showers

Of course people in Denver explain Denver weather by stating that its Denver. In other words we tend to try explaining changes we don’t understand by blaming them on things that don’t change.

So hey, how ’bout that May Day snow storm! I heard they were forecasting 20 inches of snow for Estes Park.

Wait! That’s not Denver!

This is Denver …

A Shakespeare Festival

Buses deliver actors to Clock Tower Square
The square fills with people
DPS students overwhelm the DCPA
Melees and monologues become the order of the day

On Friday, April 26 2013, the Denver Center for Performing Arts was overtaken by Denver Public School’s Shakespeare Festival. There was a tremendous amount of student participation and it was great fun for spectators like me.

(and if you’re just starting to wonder, ‘William who?’ click here for a quick and dirty summary from Wikipedia)

Starry, Starry Night

Dee works for FasTracKids, a child enrichment company. One of the centers that operates according to FasTracks principles had their kids paint Vincent van Gogh’s “Starry Night”. The way they did it was really clever. They broke the whole painting down into 20 rectangles and had different kids paint each of those rectangles. Each rectangle looks really good and the combination of all of them looks great as you can see from the image at the top. Look at a few more photos below.

Snow

Lookin' Out My Front Door
Lookin’ Out My Front Door

‘April showers bring May flowers’

I’ve heard that all my life. But I’ve one modest question, Why, this year, do all the April showers have to be snow showers? I sort of remember this Colorado from when I moved here some forty years ago, but I haven’t seen much snow in April for the last twenty. There are a great many people who think this snow is abnormal. I even know skiers who are whining about the late snow.

As hard as it is on the Lilacs, it makes great pictures. Somehow, I’m always surprised and fascinated by the way the snow soaks up colors.