Central Park, our very own walking Wikipedia, the Yankees, and the Empire State Building

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It was such a relief to hit Central Park on our second day in New York. I didn't realize how much the city was closing in on me until I got away from it. Central Park is like a miracle in the middle of the city. The trees insulate you from the sounds and sights, you can see the sky. It was rejuvenating.

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We walked up the park from midtown until we reached the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The first painting Jaclyn saw she said, "Oh, that's Lavoisier and his wife. He was a scientist and she helped him by translating scientific information into French so that he could read the works of other scientists." And it was. The walk through the park had been more stimulating than I realized: Jaclyn's brain was firing on all cylinders - she had recognized the painting from her science text book last year. It certainly is enjoyable to come across something you know something about; Jaclyn had that fun a couple of times in the Museum. There was an ancient instrument exhibit that covered material Jaclyn studied for her Royal Conservatory history exam last year, and many paintings of Old Testament figures she studied in seminary.

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With the museum and all the walking and dinner we were running a little late to get to the Yankees game.

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Which was alright because it was rain delayed for an hour and a half, with no rain cover in the bleachers section.

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Unless you had seats along the very back row against the wall, and then there was just enough shelter. It was raining hard enough that I thought they were going to call the game. We have a couple of friends that tried to get in a game on their trip to NY in the spring, and their game was rained out, which had me thinking we'd have the same rotten luck. I was happy to be wrong.
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The cheering that erupted when the infield was uncovered was incredible. And then the regulars in the bleachers started calling the players as they warmed up. Every player responded with a wave. There was one fan near us that wanted more cheering and chanting from the bleacher section than we were producing. He kept starting chants that didn't catch on (too many tourists, not enough regulars?). "Der-ek Jeter!" or "Jas-on Giam-bi!" The fans weren't even catching on to "Let's-go Yank-ees!" (Not even his buddies were joining in.) Eventually he started to shout out cusses in the same rhythms, and he got a talking to from the guy in front of him, thank goodness. So then he started calling:

"I-am sor-ry!" "So-o sor-ry!"

It's our new way to apologize now for any little thing - a private joke between Ken, Jaclyn and I. Well, not so private. I've blogged about it.

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We took the train back to midtown after the game, got off a stop or two before our hotel and headed for the Empire State Building. We walked right through all the roped-off line-mazes which made me think that midnight is just the right time to go up; in prime visiting hours it must take hours to make it to the elevator.

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Jaclyn liked sticking her head through the guard wires and looking straight down. I tried it. Once.

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It was a cloudy evening, but the view would cloud and clear intermittently, and with a little patience we got the full 360' view around the building. It was a challenge to get night photos of the city from above. I had to turn off the flash and hold the camera very still to compensate for the slow shutter speed.

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Otherwise I wound up with this.