Day 4 - Central Park Evening

Spent much of the morning doing stuff around the apartment/building (cleaning, working out, etc). Not hugely interesting.

For the day's main course, caught the subway uptown to Columbus Circle (the southwest corner of Central Park) and walked uptown looking for some sort of deli to finish off our half-assembled picnic. After a few blocks (more than I would have expected, probably almost half a mile, *gasp*) we found a little corner deli that had a wide selection of hot and cold dishes prepped and sold by the pound. We got some roast chicken, marinated mushrooms, plantains (that might have been bananas), green beans, and a collection of salads. Along with a big bottle of water, the total was something like $13. Not the cheapest picnic of all time, but a diverse and delicious one.

Thus equipped, we headed into the park to find SummerStage to scout out a place for us to see (or at least hear) The XX. Walking through the park to the venue, I was struck by the thought that Central Park is to NY what the beach is to SD. People just go there and hang out. There are lawns (Sheep Meadow, IIRC) were at 6pm on a Sunday the entire thing was filled up with blankets and picnics and people just hanging out enjoying the weather and the view and the scene. Can't blame 'em.

Having brought our picnic fixin's, and my camera, we weren't eligible to get into the main venue, so we walked around a bit and took up position on a big rock about 100 yards in front of the stage. Trees and such obscured the view, but the sound was fine. Sat, ate our picnic, people-watched, brought out books we had brought when the conversation lulled, and just generally hung out in Central Park on a beautiful summer evening. It rained a little bit, not enough to count, but enough to drive off a couple people that were less interested in the concert. Not a bad thing.

The concert itself was real good. But really, it was about the evening.

And when it was over, we still had time to walk over to the Apple Store on the UWS, pick up my now-fixed laptop (busted harddrive, did I mention?), and decide on something to get as a late-night snack. A couple blocks took us to a well-rated pizza joint (Rigoletto's) (and past at least 2 others) where we shared a plain slice (tasty), and caught the subway back home.