From the Archives: May 29, 2004 - Age 28

Shawn and I started our day with a trip around the Farmer’s Market. It was a somewhat different trip, in that we passed up on our usual staples—bison and goat cheese—and chose instead to buy ourselves a ficus tree ($15), sugar snap peas ($4 lb.), and currant scones ($1.50 ea.). Of course, we bought asparagus ($3.50 lb.), as it is still in season, and further added to our bag yellow zucchini ($1.40 lb.), which emerged for the first time this week.

After we had made our way around the square, we doubled back to pick up our ficus, and carried it back with one of us holding each side of a blue plastic bag. (We also bought a little begonia plant, the steal of the day, for $2. Once we had unloaded our groceries, we quickly tidied up our apartment and showered in preparation for the arrival of Donna and Marion.

Our two guests arrived a bit after noon, and after showing off our pictures of Captiva (we’re loving our digital camera, by the way), we left the apartment. I have yet to mention the weather of this fine Saturday, but it was one of those perfect spring days that you get in the northeast, blue sky, a little chilly in the shade, a little warm in the sun. Everything flowering and green. High of 72. It was to be the sort of day in which I repeat the phrase: “What a beautiful day!” so many times, yet the phrase never gets tired or becomes untrue.

Our first stop was at ‘wichcraft, where we picked up sandwiches and drinks, all dutifully loaded into Shawn’s striped beach bag. From there we took the 6 Train all the way up to 77th Street, surfaced, and walked past a quiet demonstration to Central Park. (No idea what was being protested against.) We entered the park and walked down a shaded path to the boat pond, where we quickly found an available bench. After lunching on our sandwiches, we stayed a bit to talk and watch the miniature sailboats race across the pond.

On the far end of the pond was what appeared to be a film crew, so when we got up we walked over to check out the scene. Much to my surprise and delight, the film crew was actually the birdwatchers of Central Park, all of whom were closely watching a nest perched high on one of the grandiose buildings of Central Park East. In the nest were three new red tail hawk hatchlings, and we spent the next fifteen minutes watching the mother and father hawks soar about, capture prey, and deposit the prey into the eager beaks of the hatchlings. It was a thrill for me to see this scene still going on, as I had read a book recommended by my mom about a year ago, titled: “Red Tails in Love” which tells the story of these hawks.

After our dose of nature for the day, we walked up through the park to the Metropolitan Museum of Art. We got our purple buttons and meandered our way through the sculptures to the elevator, which we promptly took up to the rooftop. It was a great day for the rooftop of the Met, warm enough for a Corona, but cool enough that we didn’t have to sweat. There are two new installations up there of stacked rocks that are surrounded by a wood beehive-like structure. Very cool. We took some pictures and watched the hawks soar about some more, then descended back to the ground level and made our way back to the street.

From there we walked all the way back down through the park via the rowboat pond, down through the mall, over to Sheep’s Meadow, and finally out via The Pond. Along the way we saw some Indian tribal dance, the weirdo violinist, the hackeysackers, the skateboarders, the disco rollerbladers, and any other number of interesting people and groups of people that inhabit the park. The park was bustling and full of spring-like energy.

We caught the F Train home from the park, crossed the street fair on 6th Avenue and picked up a bottle of Sancerre at the wine store. Then we walked back to the apartment, had a fruit and nut plate, and enjoyed our wine. As you might imagine, we were all a little worn out and drowsy, but we soldiered on, leaving once more for a nice quiet dinner at Friend of a Farmer, over on Irving Place.