What an eventful time we had before we even got there. Due to bad weather at both airports, our flight was delayed for several hours, putting us in New York around 2:00am Friday morning. We were granted a later wake up call to try and catch up, but once up and moving we hit the ground running.
Let me take a step back and give you the scope of why we were on this trip... The first summer in the public horticulture program, students take the Public Gardens Management course, taught by Dr. Robinson. One of the perks is traveling to various public gardens, including a big trip to a large city with well-known gardens, to see public horticulture in action. Our trip this year was to New York and our destinations were a restored train rail, one of the most visited parks in the world and a garden with more to see than we had time for. With that preview, I'll give you the scoop about each.
We were grateful to have Dr. Fleener, who we knew at the time as Ann, plan and wonderfully execute our travel. If not for her, we would have missed out on some of the best experiences in the Big Apple! So, many thanks, Dr. Fleener!
Now to continue... We were ready to go Friday morning to head out and we did as New Yorker's do -- took the subway! Only one turn around and we stepped off the platform at our destination, the High Line.
The High Line is a restored above ground train rail line where two gentleman with a vision created an area for people to enjoy a little green scene in the hustle and bustle of New York. It is about a mile walk with an additional half mile to be completed in the near future.
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| Smile, Dr. Williams! |
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| Tom Smarr, Director of Horticulture |
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| The Fab Five in the Big City! |
I'm typically one to talk about my food and everything I get to taste, but this go round I'll just stick to the gardens!
Day two -- We are out bright and early because we have one of the most popular public parks to conquer, Central Park. Our first item on the itinerary is a tour, which starts at the top of the park, but we are coming from the bottom. The question arises who wants to walk it and who wants to hop on the subway? Those who opted for the subway were considering the long day ahead and wanted to save their legs, while the rest of us who walked all 55 blocks just wanted to enjoy as much of the park as possible. After the tour we had the rest of the afternoon just to wonder and wander through the park. My favorite section was the Mall - a large tree covered strip with benches and vendors scattered through out. I like to people watch and this satisfied my itch!
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| Italian Garden - Conservatory Garden |
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| English Garden - Conservatory Garden |
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| The Mall |
Day three was our final day in New York and we started it off in Central Station (which is celebrating 100 years!) hopping on a train to head towards the Bronx and New York Botanical Garden. My only regret in writing this portion is that I spent half my time trying to recover my backpack I had left on the train. So my pictures will be limited. There is 250 acres of pure nature soaked in botanical insight. We received a short tour of the perennial garden and learned a great deal about the management and volunteer side of the garden.
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| Perennial garden with Conservatory in the background |
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| Trial garden |
This wrapped up our trip as we headed back to the airport and got out of New York on time! That closes the trip on the garden side, but we had a few more experiences while there...
A huge thanks to Dr. Sibley and whomever made it possible for us to go to Lion King on Broadway! I'm not much of one to enjoy the arts, but I absolutely loved this!
We also had the opportunity to go to the top of the world! Okay, maybe the top of the Empire State building. Here's a view from the top...
Well, that's our trip in a nutshell -- I hope you enjoyed the journey as I traveled down memory lane on this Throwback Thursday. (Okay, maybe this was posted on a Friday!)
War Eagle y'all!
Kira
