Central Park

 I LOVE Central Park!  I could spend a whole week just going to Central Park every day and hanging out. 

Mom, Kylie and I on Belvedere Castle looking over Turtle Pond, The Great Lawn and the outdoor Delacorte Theater.

   Some of my favorite places in Central Park were Belvedere Castle and Turtle Pond.  They are right next to each other.  They border on the east side of the outdoor Shakespeare theater.  If we had gone earlier in the Summer we could have seen some awesome outdoor Shakespeare. 

The Great Lawn used to be 'The Great Reservoir.'  In 1937 they filled the reservoir in with land.  All that was left was the small pond at the south end.  It was known as Belvedere Lake in the beginning, but now is Turtle pond. 

I bought an app for my iPhone soon after arriving in NYC for Central Park.  It is the coolest app!  First of all it has GPS with a little blue dot automatically placed on the map when you step into the park.  We could wander aimlessly without ever getting lost!  The other really awesome thing was, as we ran into awesome things and places all I had to do was look at the app, click on where we were and read about what we were looking at.  

Mom and Kylie had fun making fun of me and my app ..... until I read them this fun info I found about Turtle Pond.  After that they were the ones making me get the phone out to tell them stuff.

Here are some fun facts about Turtle pond. - It is the newest body of water in the park. (1937)

- It is filled with NYC drinking water, but don't drink the water!

- 5 different kinds of turtles live in the pond, and there are thousands, making them easy to spot.

- Most the turtles came from NYC apartments, dropped off by their owners, when they outgrew their urban accommodations.  But don't bring down your pet turtle, they have plenty living there now!

Notice above, myself sitting on the "Whisper Bench."  It's real name is the Charles B. Stover Bench.  It is made from 20 ft. of curved granite.  Supposedly a whisper travels well from one end to the next.  It was dedicated and named in 1936 after the NYC parks commissioner.  

Belvedere Castle was designed and built by one of Central Park's original co-designer's.  It was built in 1869 and was a 'Victorian Folly.'  It was originally used as a lookout to the Reservoir to the north (now the Great Lawn.)  Also, in the early days, it was great for bird and insect watching.  

In 1919 it was fitted with equipment to record weather.  On local news forecasts it is often heard, 

"Today the weather in Central Park is...."  Well, Belvedere Castle is where they the get the info from.  

You can see the highest and furthest view of the park and surrounding city from the castle, which is how it got it's name.  In Italian Belvedere means "Beautiful View."

Looking down into the Delacorte outdoor Theater, where "Shakespeare in the Park" is held every Summer.

Romeo and Juliet, one of two beautiful sculptures out front of the Delacorte Theater.

There are 9,000 benches in Central Park, and 36 arches and bridges.  While there are obviously thousands more benches, we still ran into many of the bridges and arches.  I really loved this arch just south of the Met under the East Drive.  It is the Greywacke arch, and was completed in 1862.  The arch itself was beautiful, but was even more beautiful because as we walked through it a street performer was playing his violin.

As we were exiting the park we happened upon this amazing site!  Mom and Kylie made me pull out the phone so we could know what it was!  It was located right behind the Met and looked like something that should be in the museum, not outside of it.  We were right!  

This is the Obelisk, or "Cleopatra's Needle."  It is the oldest man made object in the park.  Twin Obelisks were constructed on the banks of the Nile in 1500 BC.  They were commissioned by Heliopolis to commemorate the Pharaoh's 30 years of reign.  In 1879 one of the Obelisks was moved to London.  In 1881 this one was placed in Central Park with a time capsule underneath it.  They were sold to help fund modernization of Egypt.

There were many more amazing facts about this Obelisk, but I don't want to bore all of you.  I am really interested in finding a book about the twin Obelisks.  If not, Kylie thought of a really good premise for a great historical fiction book about the Obelisks, and the Londoner and New Yorker who bought them, what was put into the time capsules etc.