バッテリーパークに散歩 • Our Downtown Adventure

Battery Park

今日は夕方からNational Museum of the American Indianでフリーの映画があるとばかりと勘違いした私達は、既にクローズしている博物館へ行き何処が上演会場かと探しまくったあげく明日である事を知る。（汗）
それでもマンハッタンなら何処に行こうが観る事に欠かせない、向かいのバッテリーパークへ久しぶりに行き観光客が引いた静けさの公園を歩く。去年の夏はオランダ船が初めてハドソン川に入った４００年記念を祝い、バッテリーパークでハンサムなオランダ海兵隊の行進やプリンセスもいらっしゃったりの大催しに成りましたが、その記念としてオランダ国からオランダ風ガーデンを公園内に贈られました。
自由の女神が目の前に見えるバッテリーパークは戦闘に因んだ名のごとし、イギリスとの独立戦争でのクリントン砲台あり、第二次世界大戦での慰霊碑（East Coast Memorial）朝鮮戦争の慰霊碑（New York Korean War Veterans Memorial）ドイツUボートから魚雷を撃ち込まれた輸送船の慰霊碑（American Merchant Mariners' Memorial）そして、あの9.11テロ事件での崩れたツインタワー２号塔の前に残った芸術作品と数々の慰霊碑があります。

公園の先端で釣りをしてる人も何人かいて、サイズは小さめでしたが、スズキ（striped bass）を釣っていました。

Dancing Water: it sometimes stops
for a few seconds; the unwary
walker could get showered!

明日は早めに行き博物館内も見学してから映画を観ようと思っています。（笑）写真集をお楽しみに！

* * * * * * *

Our adventure started the evening of  May 19, (which at the time I thought was May 20th).

Ok, my mistake, but I had asked Aki  to double-check the date. His excuse for not checking: "I trust you!"  which is,  I'm sure,  an expression very high on the list of "famous last words".  So we were down town to attend a free film and dance performance at the National Museum of the American Indian, but when we got to the museum (1 Bowling Green) we found it locked up tight! After jogging around the building a few times, we found a guard who directed us to an office where a very nice museum worker informed us of our dumb error.

An Unlucky Fish

It all worked out fine though; we used the time instead to go across the street and explore Battery Park at twilight,  (and of course Aki, never without our camera, took more photos.)  He feels  that even if we should end up in the right place at the wrong time, we can always find somewhere interesting to explore - and I do agree!

Aki was fascinated by all the park monuments - each one had a history and written explanation, so we learned a lot. We also watched some guys fishing. One caught a  striped bass, but Aki  thought that the fish was a little small.  (it looked really big to me,  though…)

Aki  had missed the gigantic Holland on the Hudson celebration that took place down here last year, (work again).  Poor Aki! I got to see it, though,  so I sent him to this Pressroom site to learn more about what he had missed.

I haven't added Battery Park to our Fun Things to Do in Manhattan page yet; no time!  - I'm still working on our Free Summer Shows and Free Film pages and finding more and more every day. （汗）(ase - that's "sweat" in Japanese, which means I'm working my tail off here)

Anyway, the next day we finally did get to see the film,  The Strength of Water - and the show,  Kahurangi Maori Dance Theatre - at the NMAI Museum.
More on that adventure tomorrow…

日本語/明　English: Liz

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