Memorial Day in NYC

On the way home from upstate NY, we stopped for a one-day stay in New York City, where we took in some of the sights with our daughter, who lives in Brooklyn. We started with a walk across the Brooklyn Bridge (above: the view from the bridge), and landed in Foley Square in lower Manhattan, where the StoryCorps booth is located. StoryCorps is an oral history project which records interviews with everyday people (excerpts of which can be heard on NPR, and here). My daughter is a facilitator for StoryCorps, so we took a little tour of the booth.



Next stop was Chinatown, where we stopped for a snack of steamed pork bun and dumplings.



From Chinatown (and following a stop at the awesome Economy Candy), we headed to Central Park, where we spent most of the afternoon. On this beautiful, sunny Memorial Day, Central Park was like an enchanted playground, with something going on around every corner. Our first stop was a rest on the rocks by this lake (one of several in the park) to watch the rowboats.



The park was buzzing with activity: picnickers and sunbathers, horsedrawn carriages and pedicabs, sand volleyball and cricket games, dancers and acrobats. Here's "The Jazz Collective" at play, just one of the many musical performances going on throughout the park.



A guy on some kind of crazy bike:



A bride and groom pose for photographs:



The Bethesda Fountain, topped by the Angel of the Waters, is one of the many statues in the park. This fountain appears in a number of movies, such as Angels in America.



On the plaza above the fountain...hula hoops!



The much-photographed entryway to the Strawberry Fields section of the park, in memory of John Lennon:



This was my favorite performer of the day. A lovely young woman, dressed as a fairy, standing perfectly still and holding a rose. If you put a donation in her box, she came to life, reached inside her rose for her fairy dust, and sprinkled sparkles into your outstretched hand (click for the close-up). I was utterly charmed.



For dinner, we headed back to Brooklyn, where we ate at the Fette Sau, a great barbecue place in Williamsburg. Wyatt Cenac of the Daily Show was eating there, too, but of course, no one acknowledged his presence, because New Yorkers are way too cool for that.



And finally, a couple of random Brooklyn shots. Don't ask me to explain.