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In case you didn't know The Gates were an art installation in Central Park, New York City in February of 2005. Designed by the husband and wife team of Jean and Claude. We had been planning on going down to the city to view and walk amongst The Gates and take our exchange student from Poland, Ula, and our daughter Emily to a Broadway Show. Several days before we were to leave Ula tore the ACL ligament on her right knee, which made the trip impossible for her. Soon after that we received a call from the Lake Placid Center for the Arts and they were organizing a one day bus trip down to the city to see The Gates, did we want to go? I wasn't into going with a group on a bus, but with Sue's convincing we bought our tickets and had to be at LPCA 6am sharp for departure.
It started to snow the night before, we woke up at 4am having slightly more than three hours of sleep we headed into Lake Placid to catch the bus. This was the biggest snow of the winter, it was really coming down and we left early and drove very slow. We picked our seats on the bus and cozy'd up for the six hour ride. There was a festive atmosphere on the bus ride, not conducive to napping, there was a movie going on and lots of chatter.
The bus was moving slow through the mountains to get to the interstate known as "Northway", the trees were slumping with snow and in places it was obvious the road hadn't been plowed and we saw cars off the road. The bus stopped in Keene Valley and some hardy souls got on and now we had a full bus load. It was discovered that the toilet on the bus was full and the driver announced he was getting off in Glens Falls to pump it out or whatever they do with the stuff. We had been driving for two very long and slow hours and now Sue was getting motion sickness. For the rest of the ride she was very uncomfortable and so was my concern for her.
The snow stopped downstate but there was accumulation on the ground and the bus was able to pick up some time. We took the Lincoln tunnel into town, the streets were slushy with ice and snow. The bus weaved its way to the Metropolitan Musuem. We were met by Jonathan and Phill, two friends from Brooklyn and then Dave and Doug, two friends from Queens. It was fun touching base with city friends as we toured The Gates that were immediately around the musuem. We also walked up to the castle and looked out over the great lawn to see the saffron colored material blowing in the wind. Sue had done some reading about the art installation and knew that there were people scattered around the event who had swatches of fabric that they would only give to you if you asked. Sue knew that these people would be wearing a certain vest and when she saw one fellow she asked and then Jonathan asked and they received their collector swatches. Very cool, we have it tucked away in the book we bought about The Gates. So....what did we think about The Gates art installation? It was a very positive experience, especially to see the installation with snow on the ground. The cityscape was pretty bleak that day except for The Gates, with their billowing saffron curtains stretched across iron and fiberglass beams. It was a statement made by humans to show that the earth can be touched by beauty if we plan and implement it properly. Money obviously wasn't the driving reason behind this, although I'm sure money was made enough to pay for this project of 20 million dollars. It really was nothing more than art that brought people out on a cold slushy winters day to see the curtains of saffron, billowing along 22 miles of Central Park paths.
We hung with our friends for a couple of hours and then we went into the Met, Sue wanted to specifically see the instrument collection, we left at the 5pm closing time and walked over to Madison Avenue to look for a place to eat. We found a corner restaurant and a table right in the corner so that we could watch the show unfold on the streets. We noticed we were only two blocks south of the Czech Consulate where we were this spring with Corrine when she applied for her visa. After a wonderful dinner and wine we located a pharmacy on Lexington and Sue got something for the ride home to help her with the motion, but it also knocked her out and she slept the whole way home. The
day was great, but I'm not one to travel 12 hours in one day on a
bus. We had about seven hours on the ground in Manhattan. |
Our
Gates Story
