Question of the Day | 07/01/2009 11:00 pm
New York City's innovative new park, the High Line, is finally open. Tell us: What park is your favorite in the world?
New York City’s innovative new park, the High Line, is finally open. Tell us: What park is your favorite in the world?
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I live in Houston where we have Memorial and Herman Park which are quite beautiful and huge. But I used to live in Manhattan, so Central Park remains my favorite. I think it’s because of the weather and because Central Park’s in the movies. It’s too hot to enjoy going to the park in Houston and you can almost remember a favorite scene in a NYC movie in Central Park. So a park located with the right weather is a logical favorite.
My favorite park, is a nature park just a mile from the house. Outside of a ranger station and small ampitheater used for lectures about animals, the park has been untouched by modern history, running alongside the parameter one of the old trails used by pioneers going west.
The depth of the ravene in the park cannot be seen through the trees and forest down there, but herds of deer and some say a few cougars exist in it. Walking the trails of the park hoof prints are always noticeable and I have stood within feet of big bucks as they came out of the ravene at times.
When warm enough, I make my way down to the creek looknig for stones. I found one during a search that looked like the stone had been etched out for a tool or weapon. Brought it home, and was standing in front of my loveseat looking at the stone and holding it, when I was bounced back unto the loveseat and all I coudl see was a bright light when it happened so I am pretty sure the last use might have been what I was seeing. :-) My other favorite park, is my own yard.
Stunningly beautiful with a meditative serenity, those have been fortunate enough to spend a day in the park, in the garden, in the art museum of Huntington Museum and Gardens in San Marino, California - right on the border with gorgeous-in-itself Pasadena (and a home away from home for me,) would have to agree that this park, its setting against the mountains, the beauty of its Zen gardens, its Japanese gardens - well, my list goes on and on - makes it a world that I encourage you to make a wide detour for. Invitingly beautiful, serene, enticing you to just sit down by the lagoon, on the lawns, or on the waist-high walls — the kind of park that makes you almost gasp in its beauty, taking in this world so near - and yet so far away from the bustle of city life. For me, well, it is a magnet that seems to draw me back for another look in yet another season in an almost dream world where the greenery, the trees, the water, and the sky collide in such magnificence that our spirits are renewed, revitalized.
Do you get the idea I love the Huntington? I do. YOu will, too.
I so agree. My husband and I had our first date 57 years ago at the Huntington Museum and Gardens (then known as The Huntington Library) and we lived for ten years within walking distance of the Huntington. If anything was bothering me I would load a kid (or kids as the case might be) in a stroller and we would take a walk to the Huntington. We loved the Japanese Gardens and even the kids respected the serenity and were very, very quiet. It was my version of meditation. We only get there a couple of times a year but even though it has been redone, the gardens continue to be magnificent. Henry Huntington may not be revered by all, but he is revered by me for having given us the Huntington.
Lucky Lady … and you are, for living in walking distance to The Huntington Library and grounds I have always felt would be a glimpse of Paradise. For almost 30 years, we planned - as part of a much larger journey - a week at the wonderful Huntington Hotel, now renamed - and as an architectural buff, being in the heart of the Arts and Crafts movement of Greene & Greene houses in and around Pasadena was another of my joys. I grew up in an area of Frank Lloyd Wright homes, but I became a regular at Pasadena’s Greene&Greene Gamble House. I find it so surprising that those living in the LA area have had the pleasure of a tour. They began to "know" me there - you know, the one with the questions that never seemed to end. It is lovely to find someone who found romance and more in that gorgeous area. . for wasn’t it lovely??? Such memories.
The Huntington was another great haunt (at least the now removed Ship Room) and on summer evenings we could open our windows and hear the music. It was divine. A few years ago our son and his family spent the holidays with us and wanted to show his daughters where he grew up, see the Rose Parade,and have brunch in the hotel. I hadn’t been in the hotel for years and had those "you can’t go home again" thoughts. When we entered the lobby an entire marching band was there waiting for the bus that was to take them to the airport. You had to step over instruments, kids, luggage etc. They were having a really great time and it occurred to me that the change was not so bad. However, in a little corner sat two of the "old boys",in their blue blazers, grey flannels and rep ties. They were having coffee and I have never seen so much disapproval on two faces in my life. So, life changes, sometimes for the better, sometimes not, but when I saw those two old gentlemen I thought "Get with the program" and I silently said it to myself.
Like you, I have those mixed feelings and agree that change is in the air as it never was, but afternoon tea (and I think of Lake Louise also when I say that) and the Ship Room to us were timeless, making us want to sit up straight, be the most tiny bit elegant, and - to be honest - feel good about ourselves as, speaking for myself, I don’t feel the same about in the world today. Remember the weddings held on the Huntington lawn that we could overlook from the windows? I even liked the exterior of the beautiful city hall in Pasadena, didn’t you? And every Sunday, we would drive up to Mt. Wilson on the peak above Pasadena - and daredevil that I was - get all mixed up in the hang-gliding. I remember coming down at the appointed spot — the Pasadena High School Parking Lot, if I remember correctly which meant making quite a turn.
And speaking of beautiful parks and gardens, remember another gem next to Pasadena in La Canada - Descanso Gardens — what a delight. I am beginning to wonder why you ever moved when you were surrounded by such scenic beauty and loveliness??
We moved from "such beauty" to "another beauty" when school busing began in Pasadena. Our kids were all over the place. I had decided 6 a.m. for any child to board a bus was intolerable, particularly because they didn’t deliver him (the youngest, a fifth grader) until 5 p.m., and sometimes not at all. For the really little kids they had animals on the bus (chickens, rabbits, etc.) because the kids couldn’t read yet. However, it’s very dark at 6 a.m., and sometimes the kids couldn’t see the chicken. It was all so new and not thought out by the board of education. Nobody wanted it, and I speak for many people of all colors who wanted their children in neighborhood schools. I went to many meetings where irate parents were coming from all over the city to oppose what was happening but alas, it happened. Then, all of the private schools were full and we were over a barrel for our childrens’ education. So we endured one semester and started looking for other places to live. We found our ideal…a community with a very small school population and superior public schools. We have a Georgetown grad, a University of Paris grad, and a USC grad that this public school system has turned out. We have never regretted our move from Pasadena as our children were more important (and we have lived in our oceanfront home for thirty-seven years—not a bad view either).
What a story - that I passed on to a daughter who is a grade school psychologist — much needed in this world of today when kids are very "messed up" at a young age. At her rural school, the school is known as the Safe Haven. The kids very often are afraid to go home to mixed-up homes with abusive parents and worse, and they are given love and help all day in school. Congrats to you for very successful children. I had my kids very young, and so did they, so I have a grandchild who is the youngest grad in the US in veterinarian school with honors — and what seems like open doors to a great future. I think we owe it to our children to think of them first when choosing where to live — as they must get off to the right start. Your second home does sound lovely - very lovely also — so it all turned out for the best!!!
Joan,
This morning a friend send me a presentation of photographs from Pamukkale, Turkey, that were just phenomenal. You’ve been everywhere……have you been there? If so, tell all, please.
I have heard that the town was old and beautiful many years ago before the present day buildings turned much of the quaintness ugly. But you don’t go there for the town — you go there for an almost one-of-a-kind sight. . a mountain of sorts, white mostly from calcium carbonate I believe, that has been built up in a terrace form with what I call oyster-shaped pools of hot spring water of varying heat that I think the visitor can climb down to and bathe in. The changing in chemicals have turned this "white mountain" into limestone with hanging stalactites adding to the uniqueness of it all.
The closest thing to it I have seen is in Yellowstone, but the two cannot be compared and climbing on the formation is Yellowstone is prohibited off the designated paths.
In Turkey, I prefer Cappadocia, another unique world in itself that began with spouting volcanoes flowing that were relentlessly ccarved out by wind and nature into a series of cave dwellings and fairy chimneys of beauty — and used by ancient people for homes when they tried to escape from the conquerers. I find it hard to believe what it must have been like to have existed back then, living in fear. But there is a strange beauty - again unique in my experience - about Cappadocia.
My thoughts: I would not go to Turkey just to see these two sights, but if I were travelling in or around Turkey, I would certainly be close enough to take a close-up look of something you will never see again.
Joan,
Aha! I knew I could count on you to give me information. I wish I had a way of sending you these photos. Nothing on the internet comes close. I agree about not making a trip just for this. But I will be in that time zone in a few months. If it’s still warm enough, I think I’ll try to put it on the agenda.
Thanks for your always informative travel guide!
If you are heading there, then Istanbul is a must-see. The Blue Mosque, The Topkapi Palace, more, and drinking coffee in one of the outdoor cafes all stand on their own. My friend raves about the acheological sites that add additional layers to your visit. You must promise to do a travelogue on returning — please, Andrea!!
Every morning (weather permitting) my dog and I take a walk to a beautiful waterfront park at the end of the peninsula that we live on. It has generous walking paths that loop around two ‘fingers’ of land and there are many trees, lovely wildflowers and beaches that are usually only used by fishermen. Commuter boats pass through the channel making their way to and from Boston, lobster boats head out for long days of hauling traps and the walkers get to absorb all of it through all of their senses.
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