All the things you can do

I am always a bit amazed by the crowds in central park. People seem to be moving in packs, bouncing from one activity to the next while taking in the sights and sounds of the city's best resource. I don't think I have hid my admiration for every variety of greenery the city has to offer and especially all the wonders of tourist heaven better known as central park. Only recently I confided to my wife that had we lived in any other part of the city, away from the beauty of the park and the river, I might have dragged her back to Texas and never looked back. There is something oddly comforting about all the nature that you can find a couple blocks away from the house and it has been a place that kept me sane during the early months of culture shock and adjusting to city living.

Taking all of that into consideration it might be a tad odd that I find myself in the all too comfortable position of the couch tourist. It's Saturday morning and the postman just woke me up to deliver my newest toy and I was acting surprisingly unready to tackle the shining sun and cool chill of fall that await me outside the building. We had planned to tackle the wilderness of Brooklyn and take in the sites of Prospect Park but fear kept us on the Upper West Side. Not fear of the hip people living in their picturesque brownstones in Park Slope and carving up the street with dogs and strollers, but a fear that we would again miss a chance to check off another "things to do while we live 10 feet from the park" checklist.

Hastily compiled while we were still living on an air mattress in our studio apartment, the list ranged from eat hotdogs at Grey's Papaya ( a must do for any big apple tourist) to take in the view from the Empire State Building at night ( still a much longer line that you might anticipate). After some convincing I abandoned the comfort of the couch and we took a jaunt through the park to cross and recross items of the list. Witness a wedding in the park? Saw at least two today complete with street performers as the band. Celebrity Sightings? Managed to see Alex Rodriguez riding a bike around the inner loop. Have a picnic in the park? We braved the crowds of locals and tourists to grab hamburgers at the Boathouse Cafe.

All of that was great and fun and reminiscient of many past trips to the park. Today we added to the activity list by renting a boat and paddling our way around the pond on the west side of the park. If your lucky enough to get there before noon the crowds will be manageable and boats can be had without a wait. For the low price of 10 dollars an hour I had the privelege of rowing a boat for the prettiest lady in the park. It doesn't cost anything extra to pretend race the other boats around you and we wondered aloud about the consequences of ramming the other boats we shared the pond with. Misdemeanor arrest aside (I'm just kidding mom) it was a great way to spend a few hours, and I only regretted not bringing along a picnic while we parked in the cool shade of the trees and enjoyed the views of nature and city only the park can offer.