Winter sports

This winter New York City has had a lot of snow, but not much accumulation. And during the past couple of weeks, we've had a lot of weather that's too cold even for snow. What does one do during this weather? Why, winter sports, of course!

As I mentioned in an earlier post, our family signed up for five weekday ski passes with our homeschooling group.  The ski resort is in the Poconos, two hours away in Pennsylvania. We get everything ready the night before, get up before daylight, meet a friend with whom we share a rental car, and are on the slopes before ten. We've done this twice now in January.

I have to admit that after my first attempt to ski two weeks ago, I was a bit nervous about going back. But since Bob loves to ski, I decided to do whatever it takes to conquer my fear. C.Z. and I had bought into very inexpensive group lessons, but that wasn't going to do the trick. So we signed up for individual lessons in the afternoon, too. I am proud to say that I can now ski very slowly down the bunny slope, doing snowplow turns. I can't say it's officially "fun" yet, but I'm not terrified anymore, and I can see where, if I keep putting all my effort into learning everything I can each trip, skiing might eventually be fun.

C.Z., of course, is way ahead of me, learning how to ski on a real slope. This is why, if you have a chance, you should learn to ski when you're still young!

The following photos are from a much less dangerous adventure. Little known to most people, the Central Park Conservancy occasionally opens up the Sailboat Pond at 72nd St. to ice skaters. They only do this if the weather has been well below freezing for several days. And they don't announce it; you just have to go by and check. (We live a couple of miles away.) But when Bob went by the pond during one of his runs last weekend, there were people skating!

Unfortunately, you can see what had happened, above, by the time we got down there on Monday morning with our skates. Too much snow. No more skating. But isn't that a lovely open space for skating? You don't even have to keep going in the same direction. You just have to avoid the hockey pucks! And divets, sticks, and clumps of snow frozen in. This is no holds barred ice, not well-groomed Zamboni'd ice. We love it!

So anyway, foiled from skating, we walked about the pond, trying to decide how to make the best of the situation. Above is the terrace next to the sailboat house. And you can see the entire house in the previous photo. (Sailboat Pond is for toy sailboats, by the way. Unless you're Stuart Little.) The dogs love this weather. Fifth Avenue is in the background.

C.Z. hasn't climbed on the "Alison Wonderstatue," as she used to call it, in several years.  Since then, she seems to have drunk out of the bottle that makes you grow.  Alice is still bigger, though!

After looking scoping out the surrounding hills, we settled (so to speak) on a nice sledding spot next to the pond. (Of course we brought our sled.) It even had a helpful railing to keep you from sliding into the pond if you got going too fast! After a few runs, Bob noticed that if you could keep to the far left of the path, you could "hop" onto the walkway and keep going all the way down to the water, making for a much more exciting ride.  Soon everybody was doing it!   

Eventually, however, the nice slick sledding walkway got too clogged with toddlers and dog walkers, so we left and started trekking home through the park. Above is one of our favorite paths from the days when we used to live on the East Side. We used to affectionately call it our "backyard." (So do a lot of people, no doubt!)  It goes right behind the Metropolitan Museum.  

Here are some cold pigeons by Turtle Pond. The building in the background is Belvedere Castle. It's a nature center.  

The next photo in the sequence would the the vertical one of the Great Lawn at the top of this post, and there should be some of the Reservoir in between, but I've got way to many photos already. Let's fast forward to the Pool at 104th St. I like this spot where a creek drains out of the Pool (another pond), splashes down some rocks, and winds under the West Drive. There's nice birding here in the spring.

But for now, there are mostly a bunch of ducks trying to keep open a spot of water in the Pool. And one Osprey was perching overhead. So you might call these sitting ducks. They looked very nervous, but the Osprey left them alone.

***

C.Z. and I finally did get to go ice skating, at Bryant Park, on Wednesday, with our homeschooling co-op.  After trying to ski, it was a breeze!  The season is over tomorrow at Bryant Park, because the rink closes for Fashion Week.  But the winter sports continue...