Serendipity

This was really a great day! I walked in the park and jogged around the reservoir and then met H back at the apartment. We made a picnic lunch and walked over to the Poets' Walk in the park and sat on a bench and ate. H took some pictures with her good camera.

Always there are artists and musicians out on the sidewalks or in the park or on a subway platform trying to earn some money. Here is a guy who was loving those drums!

This family was singing under the bridge at the Poets' Walk. The acoustics were incredible. It was lovely.

H liked the workmen at the top of the fountain. There are always people from the Central Park Conservancy working on the grounds.

This was the best day! H says it was her favorite day so far. While we were walking through the park, we saw lots of people H wanted to paint. She told me she wanted to ask them if she could take their picture. I said, Ask! All they can say is no and then we'll just walk away really fast, never to be seen by them again. It's a BIG city! So that's what she did. And we met some of the most interesting people. H would tell them why she wanted to take their picture and no one refused. H loved the way this guy looked with his hair and cigar and dog.

These people were the best. H asked the elderly lady if she could take their picture. She said sure and then we sat and visited with them a bit. The lady is an artist too and so was her dad. She studied with an artist from the Ashcan "school." She told H not to let anyone try to influence her away from her own style but to paint as it comes naturally to her. The man in the picture is 103 years old! These folks made our day. We saw them as they walked slowly out of the park. They live somewhere right along 5th or one of the side streets. I can imagine them spending time each day in the park when the weather is good. Talk about serendipity!

We walked over to the Conservatory Water to take pictures of the sailboats. These are mostly H's pictures. I love how the buildings along 5th Avenue are reflected in the water.

There is a plaque in front of this statue of Hans Christian Anderson that reads something like "Given to the Children Who Lost Parents on 9/11."

H is taking an independent study this fall on Degas. The class will take a trip to LA to visit specific museums. She spoke with her instructor before she left for the summer and was told where to see the most Degas here in NY. We spent part of the afternoon at the Met photographing and making notes of all the Degas paintings and sculpture.

After the Met, we walked over to Madison and had coffee. We were kind of cutting up with the camera here, trying to take artistic pictures!

Our friends Terri Merriman and her girls, Morgan, Madison and Chandler, were in New York for a week. We saw them last night at dinner. We walked over to Rue 57 where they were eating and we just visited. Tonight we had dinner with them at Serendipity.

We ordered two of the the Forbidden Broadway Sundaes for the table. Ridiculous.