After hearing about it and thinking it sounded like it might be fun to check out for several years now, I'm glad to report that I finally made it to the annual Winter Jam winter sports festival in Central Park this year! I'd actually missed the advertisements this year, but my friend Barbara had heard about it from Iris, another friend who works for the Parks Department and was working that day. She thought it sounded like fun too, and I joined her for a really fine afternoon in Central Park.
This is a great family activity, with a whole range of activities for kids (including a wild free-for-all variation on the dodgeball theme that actually looked like a lot more fun that the original game - sorry no pictures of that, we ran into more friends there and got to chatting) and ice sculptures, with food trucks and a little farmers' market for refreshments. It was a great day for being outside, blue skies and sunshine; maybe a little warmer than you might want for a winter festival, with the temperature getting up to the 50's, but some of the local ski resorts are always there for this thing and one of them brings a snowmaker to create the little ski hill where they offer free tastes of skiing and snowshoeing all day.
We didn't end up doing that - Iris had mentioned that it was good to get there early, and we did, but we didn't run straight for the ski line, opting to do some walking around first. When we finally did, the line was up to a two-part affair, with one line of people who were guaranteed that if they were willing to wait for a long time, they would get to spend some time on the snow, and then a second line a little ways away with no guarantees (the first line was closed, of course).
This is a great family activity, with a whole range of activities for kids (including a wild free-for-all variation on the dodgeball theme that actually looked like a lot more fun that the original game - sorry no pictures of that, we ran into more friends there and got to chatting) and ice sculptures, with food trucks and a little farmers' market for refreshments. It was a great day for being outside, blue skies and sunshine; maybe a little warmer than you might want for a winter festival, with the temperature getting up to the 50's, but some of the local ski resorts are always there for this thing and one of them brings a snowmaker to create the little ski hill where they offer free tastes of skiing and snowshoeing all day.
We didn't end up doing that - Iris had mentioned that it was good to get there early, and we did, but we didn't run straight for the ski line, opting to do some walking around first. When we finally did, the line was up to a two-part affair, with one line of people who were guaranteed that if they were willing to wait for a long time, they would get to spend some time on the snow, and then a second line a little ways away with no guarantees (the first line was closed, of course).
We'd already been standing for quite some time talking with friends and watching the fun, so we decided to skip that and just go for a walk instead - Barbara had suggested a bit of a hike afterwards, and I just don't get up to Central Park much these days, so that was a good part of the appeal, so we weren't actually that disappointed. There are actually ski buses you can catch from various places in the city for a day on the slopes, they leave at, like, 6 am, which is a pretty horrible time for this non-morning-person, but if I really wanted to see if I remember anything from my 2 winters of skiing when we were in Washington State, that would probably be a much more satisfying way to do that. And the walk was great, Central Park is so beautiful!
Photos from our stroll tomorrow, here are some pictures from Winter Jam. Click on any photo for a slideshow view.
Click here for more info about the Winter Jam from the NYC Parks Department. It's over and done with for this year but it'll be back!
2 comments:
Why didn't they have this kind of event when I was growing up in New York City? But, more to the point, it would be so awesome to have blue skies if it gets up in the 50's in January. That rarely happens in Binghamton, and when it does, the skies are gloomy. But who cares, if you are having fun? And this sounded like fun. I love seeing ice sculptures, too.
It was great having a little break from the cold and a fun way to enjoy it! Back to chilly now, nothing like Binghamton but a little more seasonable.
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