turtle pond

John B. Moore

Turtle Pond in Central Park.

So we had a good time. not as exciting as we expected - just loads and loads of tourists, plus a fair number of genuine New Yorkers ... laying out and sunning. The turtles were hard to see among the algae green ick on the water (not visible in this photo from the Central Park Turtle Pond main page). Scummy. we walked for almost 2 hours and got some good exercise. i know that's good for my health overall and my back in specific.

We walked through the park - saw the Bow Bridge, Bethesda Fountain, Great Lawn, Chestnut Hill, Belvedere Castle, etc. I'll load my own pictures soon - including some ubiquitous purple shots - onto my Flickr.

Next time we're going to try to use something from the Central Park page - podcasts. I love the idea of a podcast walking tour - I really really think there should be more of those for this city. I think it could even be something people would pay for...I mean if they'll buy overpriced books, ride on tour buses, etc. Why not?

Also, we'll try to do the canoes next time we go - and walk up the steps of the castle. My back prevented both these activities. Plus it would have been excellent to play a board game with Shawn's buddies ... but my back, again, just couldn't take the idea of sitting on the ground. Even sitting in this chair on a pillow isn't the easiest thing! Somehow walking helps though, so we'll see. Ice is also doing good stuff. (As per Beth's instructions)

On Friday Shawn bought our gym memberships for the year. Because we're married I get a cheap, cheap, cheap membership to access the university gyms. Awesome. I've gone with him once before - at $10 for one day - and loved it. Should I ever want to take up swimming (not that I'm planning to), I could. Also an outdoor track, indoor track, basketball, ellipticals, etc. Shawn also got us squash rackets, so we can play that some.

Obama-Biden, as a name combination sounds ominous to me, and I wonder if that will crop up in right-wing online spaces... Otherwise, it was exciting to get the text message/twitter/email about it, even though it was AFTER the story already broke. I digress, really.

Going to lie back down and watch some more Olympics... Can't wait for the diving - although I already know the outcome. I enjoyed rhythmic gymnastics ... wonder why there weren't 12 year old Chinese girls in those competitions?! (international burn?)

~Mari.