Day two of our NYC family vacation! Missed day one? You can check it out right here. Moving on, this day was much more focused. The goal: explore a bit of Central Park and reach Bethesda Fountain. Also in the cards was to go to a museum, but like we were directors of Game of Thrones, we kinda forgot museums close early and we’ve been leaving the house around noon, so that was a sad omission from our plans.
If you want to check out the Instagram post for this day, you can do so right here. Like most days, we started with a ferry ride. We had to walk a bit to get to the train we needed to take so we took in the sights from point A to B. New Yorkers take a ton for granted, I’m sure. I know I did when I lived there. So many skyscrapers looking like they’re just crammed into busy streets like socks in a drawer. And amazing stonework too, I could stay looking up all day.
We were there when Spider-Man: Far From Home released too, so there was a ton of advertisements everywhere around the city and it was great. It almost felt like he was an actual hometown hero. Which, duh, he is. Right?
Anyway, we took the train and made it to Central Park after a walk down a few blocks. Almost 50 yards in the kids already wanted to do something else. You can probably use your imagination to see how the remaining hour and a half of walking went. But the wife and I were determined. We’re parents. We know when our kids have hit their limits and the ability to go on is non-existent. I’d feel terrible pushing them past those limits, my poor, innocent angels. That said. We also know when they’re being selfish little jerks and when they’re bored and just want to do something, anything, other than what they’re doing so we promptly told them to suck it up, stop whining, and keep marching, we have a fountain to find.
The oldest, being my son, then spotted this shortly after. Pointed and exclaimed, “look! There’s a fountain! Let’s go somewhere else now.” It was hard to not laugh and be proud of his assholery.
We were walking for a bit before we started seeing landmarks in the park. Central Park is freaking huge, clocking in at 2.5 miles long and half a mile wide. It’s an oasis smack in the middle of the most famous city in the world. It’s packed with landmarks, activities, and beautiful scenes that can take you days to experience all of them. I’m flatout shocked that the few things I wanted to see just so happened to be in the path towards our destination.
Cleopatra’s Needle was one of them. It was built in 1450 BC! Here’s a quote from Central Park’s official site:
“It is one of a pair of obelisks that were commissioned for Heliopolis on the banks of the Nile circa 1450 BC by an Egyptian pharaoh who wished to celebrate his 30 years of reign. The monuments were then moved to Alexandria in 18AD. They remained there until one obelisk was moved to London in 1878. The second one, erected two years later in Central Park, was offered by the Egyptian Khedive to America in exchange for funds to modernize his country.”
It was something I wanted to go up to and check out but by this point everyone in our party was tired and hot and didn’t want to cross the bike path to see it. I thought it was cool enough to go see but I didn’t want to go on my own.
Also seen was The Metropolitan Museum of Art, and numerous tunnels and paths. Luckily enough, the second top thing I wanted to see was on the way to the fountain.
The Alice in Wonderland statue was something I never really took the time to sought out, yet, was looking for once before. Funny enough, the last time we were in the park, I saw it on the map and thought it would be a good place to do what I will talk about next. So It was chance, I guess, that we didn’t find it.
It was commissioned by George Delacorte as a gift to the children of New York City.
It was also a tribute to Margarita, his late wife, who loved to read Alice to their children. C’mon, how awesome is that?! It’s a great statue for children to play on and I’m happy my kids got the chance to. Couldn’t do too much though because the bronze in the summer sun felt like it could sear skin.
This pond just directly in front of the Alice statue was another thing I wanted to see/do. They have little remote controlled model boats you can rent and have fun driving around the water. During the winter they drain it a bit and when it freezes it’s a free public ice rink. It’s also the same pond featured in the book and movie Stuart Little. I thought it would’ve been great for the kids to do, but they were a mere inches from exploding due to heat and boredom that I couldn’t bear to put them through anything extraneous.
We left there and with our darling children ready to willingly sign the papers to put themselves up for adoption, we were ready to call it quits. It was one of the hottest and muggiest days of the week and no one was enjoying themselves. But as it turned out, the fountain was about a 4 minute walk away, so we were right there.
Ok, I already teased it so here it is. The reason we wanted to hit Bethesda Fountain isn’t because we like the Angel of the Waters statue atop of it. Which, if you didn’t know, references the Gospel of John, which describes an angel blessing the Pool of Bethesda and giving it healing powers. The Central Park site explains how the fountain commemorates the Croton water system, which first brought fresh water to New York City in 1842. Man, I love how history rich this city is. But no, it wasn’t the statue that brought us here, or that it’s famously seen in countless movies (seriously, almost every movie that features Central Park has a shot of the fountain). No, it is because that’s the spot where this journey began for the wife and I. It’s where I PROPOSED. Yeah, that’s right. Don’t listen to my wife, she’ll tell you I didn’t ask anything, that I didn’t get down on one knee, and I just gave her the ring.
Look, the fact that she’s right doesn’t matter. The only thing that matters is that she knows what I was implying and she said yes… After saying no first, but I chalk that up to shock.
Anyway, this all went down right in Bethesda Terrace, the heart of Central Park. Right under the beautiful Minton tile ceiling, which were just restored two short years before our engagement. Go ahead, follow that link to read up on the tiles, they have a rich history.
Sadly, the exact spot I purposed was being taken up by what seemed to be some sort of illegal gambling (thanks, New York City), so we had to gather the fam a few yards away for the picture we traveled so far for. Still, it was great to be there again. Especially with our appreciative children who, for the life of them, could not understand what the big deal was with the stupid fountain.
We did what we came for. We began our journey out of the park and found the nearest subway to take us back to the ferry. My kids only made it mildly miserable, but looking back I know it’s not their fault. What kid wants to walk around a park with nothing to look at but trees? I can’t wait to rub it in their face though, next time we watch a movie and there’s a scene in Central Park and they get all excited that they’ve been there. I’ll be like YEAH, THAT BORING PARK, REMEMBER THAT! And then they’ll say not really and I’ll feel like a failure of a parent, it’s fine.
We ended the day at home with some NY pizza which we didn’t get nearly enough of.
This was only the second day. Day 3 had its own epic adventures! Stay tuned for that and for the final day’s update. Yeah, that’s right! Four posts! …What? I said three posts before? Sorry, you must have me mistaken for someone who has all his stuff in order.
