Week of July 18th 2011: Boating in the Park

The famous Boat House

Before I even got to New York, Elissa had been asking me if we could go boating. She explained that a few blocks from her apartment, in Central Park, there was a place you could go boating. Even though I had never been to New York before, I'd of course, seen several movies that took place there (even the night before we had seen a post dinner showing of Friends with Benefits) so of course I had heard of the infamous Boat House. Somehow I did not put two and two together.

stopping for some noms

Once I figured that one out, my excitement escalated. It's always fun to see something in person that you'd only seen in a movie or TV show or read about in a book. Since we didn't have a small fortune or a reservation, we didn't have lunch at the Boat House (maybe next time) and instead got a some park-esque food and cookies before our boat ride.

Can you see our turtle friend?

Elissa and I were so excited about our adventure. She kept telling me how romantic it was and that I would have to row for her since I was stronger. This led to many jokes along the way about how I would be such a good boyfriend for her and that I should propose to her in the boat because it would be the most romantic thing ever.

We rowed to the edge of what we thought was the whole lake rather quickly and began to wonder what we would do for the rest of the hour that we had rented... until we got closer and saw that the lake kept going... and going... and going. Maybe we should have gotten two hours? (this map hopefully illustrates how you can't see most of the lake from when you start out and it's actually about 10x bigger than you initially think)

Our little spin around the lake was so fun. You get to see parks of the park that are otherwise a little hidden. There was a person who had set up a little easel and was painting the scene, people bouldering, lake turtles popping their heads up occasionally, and of course the other-boat-people-watching.

Others enjoying a lake picnic

Eventually we got to the far end of the lake and Elissa insisted on rowing. I'm not going to comment except to say that apparently, the boat doesn't move if you get stuck on the rocks... I may have had to pry us loose a couple of times.

We eventually were getting close to our hour time limit so I took the paddles back and rowed us quickly back to the shore. Sadly, our romantic boat ride had come to an end but I will never forget my fantastic date with Elissa.

On a side note - I mentioned seeing Friends with Benefits for a reason. There is one scene where they are at a really pretty part of the park with a lovely steps and a fountain. Elissa had been wondering where that could possibly be and suggested we look for it. So - a little cell phone googling and we saw that the nearest street was the one we were near... it had been several hundred feet from us the whole time... we had rowed past it. Either way, we had fun taking some pictures there and then walking through a lot of the rest of the park.

Beautiful view of the Upper West Side