Tip of the day:
I collect old travel guidebooks—from Baedekers to well-thumbed Fodor’s guides from the 1970s. Read up on what the cultural and restaurant scenes were like in the past for a terrific snapshot of a location back in the day. Plus, you can see how a particular location has evolved and changed over time.
The weather in New York City has been idyllic of late, and it looks like we are heading into a blissful Labor Day holiday. I live in an up-and-coming neighborhood in Brooklyn called Prospect-Lefferts Gardens, and within minutes of my home, I have access to everything from the Brooklyn Museum and the Brooklyn Botanic Garden to bucolic Prospect Park and the shops and restaurants in the already-arrived Park Slope nabe. If you come to New York City, you must venture further afield than Manhattan. Frankly, Brooklyn is where it’s at—and this from a former Manhattan snob.
Yesterday was the perfect day for a jaunt across the park—and a little gambol through nature—so here are some shots from my Brooklyn adventure al fresco.
The Prospect Park Audubon Center at the Boathouse resides in a glorious, historic terracotta building overlooking the duckweed-blanketed Lullwater. Try for a ride aboard the electric Independence that plies the park’s 60-acre lake. And look at the charming wedding taking place.
Imagine all of this nature tucked into the bosky environs of Prospect Park. Actually, this waterfall is manmade (the “stream” is pumped in from the city’s water mains), but it still looks amazing.
Designed by Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux, Grand Army Plaza houses the monumental Soldiers and Sailors Memorial Arch. The swanky, glass-wrapped apartment building to the right was designed by starchitect Richard Meier.
Just down Eastern Parkway from Grand Army Plaza sits the imposing façade of the Brooklyn Museum. Among the current exhibitions are the works of UK-based, Nigerian-born artist Yinka Shonibare, MBE (check out the life-size mannequin with ocelots) and Light of the Sufis: The Mystical Arts of Islam.
The Brooklyn Botanic Garden is my most favorite urban sanctuary, situated just steps from the urban grit of Flatbush Avenue. Here’s the verdant rose garden with its lattice-trimmed pavilions. Glorious!