Vacation Adventures, part 5: Belvedere Castle & Central Park

Every time we go to the Great Lawn in Central Park, we see Belvedere Castle in the distance and we always say, "we should really go up there sometime," but we never plan to try to figure out how to get there. Today we headed down to the park for a picnic and some playground action and I was determined to figure out how to get up there. We entered at West 79th street and started wandering East. The various paths seemed to suddenly multiply and I wasn't sure where to go, so I wanted to give up (a usual pattern in most of our adventures!) But Jon was determined to find the entrance, so he took the lead. I was SO skeptical of the path we started to take and was positive that we were going to end up lost in "The Ramble." But he perservered and wouldn't let me turn back. And somehow (I'm still not sure how) we made it to the castle! Needless to say, Jon was very pleased with himself and asked how I could ever doubt him (he has quite the track record for being terrible with directions and getting us lost!).

so proud of himself!

Anyway, we made it to the castle basked in the fabulous view that was there. As we were leaving, we saw a different way to exit and soon found that the entrance was WAY easier to get to than we thought! Oh well, now we know!


We picnicked on the Great Lawn and then headed to check out a new playground. The "Mariner's playground" at the W 86th street entrance is another good one to put on my list. It had a great toddler playground and water feature!