Wave Hill - The Secret Garden

Wave Hill wasn't the first place I visited in NYC but it is my favorite so far!  

This Sunday I was looking for a refuge from the frantic pace of city life and decided on Wave Hill.  I was drawn both by the beautiful photos on their website and by the idea that it would be easy to get to (see below).

In the flower garden.

Wave Hill is technically just a short ride across across the East River from Manhattan but it feels like it's an ocean away from the concrete jungle.  Entering the gardens made me so happy that I just sat down in one of the many lawn chairs scattered about the grounds and didn't move for an hour.  Later, as I walked the garden paths and the wooded trail I felt an extreme sense of relief that someplace so calm could be found so close to my new home.  I have a feeling I'll be headed here frequently to de-stress and think.

The Pergola at Wave Hill

I think my favorite part of the visit was while I was sitting under the pergola drinking an iced coffee (only $2!).  I was looking out at a beautiful view of the Palisaides on the far side of the Hudson (where I work at LDEO) when a little girl came along and said to her mother, "smell this one too."  It wasn't until she spoke that I realized I had been sort of closing off my nose and breathing through my mouth.  Not a particularly attractive habit, but necessary in many parts of NYC where dogs pee all over the sidewalk and people don't understand the purpose a trashcan.

My favorite.

Those of you getting excited about my organizational scheme (that's everyone right?) will have noticed that I tagged this post "Art."  Wave Hill is also home to an art gallery but I'm afraid I wasn't much impressed.  The reason for the tag has more to do with the fact that I kept thinking that if I were a textile designer that I would be having a field day.  Everywhere I looked I saw patterns in the flowers and trees.  Needless to say I took about a zillion pictures.

Subway map.

The Details

Getting there: Take the 1 train going uptown to the end of the line at 242nd street (Van Cortland Park).  Leave the subway station and walk north to the Burger King parking lot.  Free shuttles to Wave Hill leave at 10 past, every hour.
Cost: Student Admission is $4, regular admission $8.  Free admission every Tuesday and Saturday mornings from 9 to noon.
Summer Hours: Tuesday-Sunday, 9:00-5:30.

Hello there!

New York City is the most happening place on earth.

Can't say I'd want to be one of  them.
But I wouldn't mind stealing
some of their shoes.

Don't believe me?  Turn on a television: doesn't it seem like everyone lives here?  Friends, Sex and the City, Gossip Girl, the cast of How I Met Your Mother and even the detectives (and criminals) of Law & Order (yikes).

Ok, so those are all fictional people, but isn't NYC also an international hub of finance, news and art & culture? Check, check and check.  Somewhere in there is a reason so many people my age seem to be dying to live here.  Not me though!

New York City is kind of low on the list of places I'd like to call home for a lot of reasons: it's dirty, noisy, expensive, taxi drivers are trying to kill you left and right and perhaps most importantly there's not much of what I think of as "nature"....

Rawr!

So if I'm such a Debbie Downer, how is it that I've found myself parked for the foreseeable future on 119th and Amsterdam?  Two powerful words: Columbia University.  Translation: five years here and then with any luck I'll get an amazing job and move to Colorado, Vermont or somewhere else high up on the list of places I'd love to call home.

In the meanwhile I've got a lot of time to spend in NYC (despite the fact that I'm going to have a pretty hefty workload)!  This blog will be dedicated to my adventures as I explore the city and make myself at home.  Hopefully, those of you who know me will enjoy reading about what I've been up to and those of you who don't know me but are also trying to enjoy NYC (without breaking the bank or becoming Carrie) will be interested in what I've found to keep myself busy.  Who knows, maybe you'll even catch me enjoying life in NYC!

Cheers,

Allison

P.S. Nifty header eh?  I finally managed to get photoshop and illustrator working on my new Mac!  I am thinking about making it into a t-shirt but I am not entirely sure I thought it up on my own. Seems a bit too clever to have come from my brain.

P.P.S. Speaking of Macs, today I overheard someone on the subway say that currently Apple has more cash on hand than the US government.  Appears to be a true statement.