According to Wikipedia, Central Park gets over 25 million visitors each year. The park was built in 1857 and although it experienced periods of progress and decline, today it’s a beautiful natural getaway right smack in the middle of Manhattan. It occupies 843 acres and is 2.5 miles long and 0.5 miles wide. One fact I found interesting is that although the park appears to be natural, it is entirely landscaped. It takes about $25 million a year to keep this park in operation…but I guess that’s not a lot of money when you consider the real estate value was appraised at $529 billion in 2005.
After cruising around the busy and noisy city, the natural beauty and quietness of the park was a welcomed relief. I couldn’t help but wonder what this park looks like in the autumn. I did a quick Google image search of Central Park in autumn and I would like to go back with Stacey sometime during this season. It is spectacular. I’m sure there are a lot of other places that are just as pretty but I don’t think you’ll find something quite as unique as this setting.
We rode up the east side of the park and stopped at the various areas along the way. We passed the lake, the great lawn, a castle, the boat house area and eventually made our way up to the reservoir. I really liked the mall (the large walking area lined by huge trees), the castle, the great lawn and the boat house, and the reservoir…oh, wait…that was pretty much everything we saw. There were people all around but it wasn’t too crowded since it was midday Thursday. I would guess the park gets pretty busy on the weekend during the warmer months. We saw people painting, playing baseball, getting a tan, jogging, biking, playing soccer, rowing boats, playing music, etc – pretty much everything. If I lived in Manhattan I think I would end up spending a lot of time at Central Park.
After our 2 hour casual ride through the park we headed back to the hotel in New Jersey. We needed a little bit of a rest from our big day before the Spurs - New York game later that night.
