Happy Birthday Prospect Park

This weekend was the 100th anniversary of Prospect Park, which, being in Brooklyn, is not one of New York's most famous parks. (Though Brooklyn has been getting far more attention in recent years, Manhattan - and Central Park - still get most of the glory.) The park had quite a few fun events going on in honour of their birthday and, having never been, Sarah dragged my depressed ass out of bed to go, and wow am I glad she did.

Look at this beautiful place

Guys? I love Central Park. I do. When I moved to New York City, I quickly found that Central Park not only was one of the few tourist attractions that lived up to the hype, it completely surpassed it.

But... I think in some ways I might like Prospect Park better.

See, Central Park is, for the most part, completely tamed. It's all controlled and manicured for premium aesthetics. Prospect Park isn't like that. In fact, Prospect Park is one of the few areas in the city that hasn't changed much since the Revolutionary War. This is land that the Battle of Brooklyn took place on, and when you walk through the park, you can picture the soldiers running through this terrain rather easily.

The other thing is that Prospect Park is in Brooklyn. I love Manhattan and its skyscrapers, I do, but sometimes I need to feel like I'm getting out of the city and I can't afford to go to Albany every time I get that itch. Central Park is beautiful, but in most of it you can still see skyscrapers. You are always aware you're in the middle of New York City. Prospect Park doesn't have many tall buildings surrounding it, so when you're walking around - especially in the woodsy areas - it really does feel like you've escaped, either to a faraway forest or to another time.

It really is lovely.

Sarah and I began our day by purchasing apple cider donuts at the little farmer's market in front of the park (60 cents each!) and setting off past the large lawn pictured above and into the more wooded areas of the park.

We had nowhere to be in a hurry, and I was letting Sarah choose which paths to take. She was being adventurous and choosing whichever paths looked "least explored". I admit at this point I was still looking around and imagining redcoats and patriot soldiers running and shooting through all the trees, while she began talking about "Fiddler on the Roof", which she's working on a scene on for school. (Side note: Sarah is in musical theatre school.)

We saw so many interesting things. That stone arch pictured above had calcite deposits forming actual tiny stalagtites underneath it. We also found a rotting tree stump covered in three varieties of mushrooms, and at one point I got in a whistling contest with a songbird. Some of the paths were muddy and had horse (!!!) tracks in them. We even found a creek, the only sign of civilisation being a red ladder in case it iced over and someone fell in. I hadn't quite realised when I'd moved here how much I'd find myself missing true wilderness and nature.

After about thirty minutes of this, we heard two things: the distinctive call of a peacock in the distance, and old-fashioned music. At this point we were knee-deep in a conversation about the lives of Jews in the Pale of Settlement, but we followed the sound anyway and came out of the forest into one corner of the park which has been somewhat developed. Much to my delight, we discovered the music was coming from a carousel.

The Prospect Park carousel was built in 1912 near Coney Island, and moved to Prospect Park later. All of the horses are completely unique, and many of them have names. After paying an admission fee of $2 each, I hopped on a horse named "Jody" and Sarah on a horse named "Nanny". Of course, you all know from my posts about Coney Island and Albany, I fucking love historic carousels. I was absolutely delighted to ride it.

Near the carousel was a little hut.

There were park employees (volunteers?) at a booth nearby, but I didn't ask them the purpose of the little hut. I imagine that since we were in the "children's corner" of the park (That's really what they call it!) that it exists to teach children about the Lenape tribes that once lived on this land.

Needless to say, Sarah and I ducked through the low entrance and went inside, where there were logs set up as chairs to sit around a (definitely unusable) firepit.

Nearby, there were two attractions of interest. First off, the Prospect Park Zoo, which must have been where the peacock call came from. We did not go inside the zoo, mostly because I didn't have enough cash on me for the $8 admission. But second off?

Lefferts House, a historic house museum! Built in 1783 after the original family hoe had burned down during the Revolution, it's now a free house museum, and you all know how much I love house museums! The downstairs was open to meander around in, and the upstairs had free tours offered every 30 minutes.

And because there was this festival going on, there were colonial-era games out front. Yes, it was probably meant for children to play such games, but I am a child at heart, so Sarah and I tried. We played checkers (she won, but I did pretty good for my first time), walked on the wooden stilts you can see leaning on the fence in the picture, and I got to try something I've always wanted to try, ever since I was a child and read about it in an American Girl book: HOOP ROLLING!

For the record, hoop rolling is surprisingly difficult.

We also, of course, checked out all the historic rooms, since Sarah knows I'm all about historic rooms. (She enjoys them as well.)

All in all, I had such a good time. Prospect Park is beautiful, and I absolutely cannot wait to go back. And I am absolutely grateful to Sarah for not letting me give in to my depression and mope around in my bed all day!

-Nym