Apparently Bryant Park used to be quite the hell-hole (or as Christopher Guest would say: 'ell-'ole). Its history is a cycle of loveliness, derelictness, a great effort, loveliness, derelictness, a great effort... Currently it's a pretty little Frenchified park. Who knows if it's done cycling -- I know that the peace and safety that is NYC today is relatively new and not guaranteed to last. Our friends that are natives share stories that teach us to be grateful that we are living in the city at a time when it's so easy. We are mindful that it can shift at any time.
This morning we subwayed ourselves down to Bryant Park to fulfill our destiny with some exotic birds. Arriving early, we went to the New York Public Library, which is adjacent to the park. The free exhibits have always been worth our time. The one currently going on is:
And it is awesome. What's brilliant about the library exhibitions is that they are manageable -- they make you think -- but they don't wear you out. Personally, I had never considered how or why "lunch" was constructed (to provide nutrition, but not take too long, so workers could get back to work... thus the larger midday meal was pushed out to later (i.e. not midday), so as not to impact working hours). The best part by far was the actual Automat. Our family is nuts about Automats (the kids made one this summer with cardboard boxes and coordinating tickets that had to be inserted before our food was handed out... Yeah, yeah, your kid made an Automat once, too... probably out of recycled beet stems and sculpted potato peels... and you were able to put the entire thing in your compost heap before doing your nightly meditation... Rest assured I don't think my offspring are exceptional -- kids do brilliant stuff...and highly irritating stuff... I mentioned that only to help explain why there was more sanctified awe walking towards that wall of cubbies than there has EVER been walking into church). NYC has given humanity many beautiful things, and the Automat (invented here in 1912) is not too far down the list...
We always say our obligatory, "Hello" to the real Pooh and friends... though we disapprove of the new display AND we highly disapprove of the random benecklaced-Otter that they've added to the collection. Apparently Lottie was in the 2009 "authorized sequel." I don't care if A.A. Milne himself came back from the dead and said he fancied Lottie -- she, and her cheap string of pearls, should not be in the same glass case as the originals. (I know. I need to get a job/life.)
After trash-talking Lottie ("So she's like naked, except for a necklace?") we moved on to Bryant Park, where the kids rode Le Carrousel ($2/ride):
But all of this was just because, our purpose behind the journey was to see the birds. Through the summer (until September 25th) Arcadia Bird Sanctuary has brought exotic birds on Tuesdays at 11:30. Every time we planned on going it rained -- so today was our day.
With clipboards in hands The Boy and The Girl approached the animal handler and scribbled notes furiously (in Australia cockatoos are as prevalent as crows are here; green to match Amazon forest; seven types of feathers; etc...). The lady was super, super nice and not only answered every question, but gave the kids her email address in case they think of more questions. After they set their clipboards aside they got to hold the green-cheeked-something-or-other... And after holding it, the handler put it on each of their heads. For my kids it doesn't get much better than that.
If somehow we escape the clutches of the West Nile virus, we will most likely get the Avian Flu... Until the symptoms present themselves, we will continue on... knowing that NYC is a place where something very sad happened eleven years ago, but before then it was a place where pies came out of the wall, and since then it's been a place where South American birds walk on kids' heads...
