Central Park, Nov 9–15: lanterns at Summit Rock, the Great Park Hike, and the warm spell ends Friday

        Hi there,

Three mild days and then a hard turn. Monday to Wednesday are sunny at 59°, 61°, 61° with nothing on the calendar; Friday drops to 47° with rain and a 25 mph wind, and the weekend stays cold. Everything outdoors belongs in the first half of this week.

The weekend is worth braving anyway: a lantern parade at Summit Rock on Saturday at dusk, and the Conservancy’s full-length Great Park Hike on Sunday.

Weather this week

Sunny and mild through Wednesday, with Veterans Day the calmest and best of the three. Thursday 57° with rain by evening, Friday 47° and wet with a 25 mph wind, Saturday 46°. For walking, take Tuesday or Wednesday; for the weekend, dress for proper cold.

Mon Nov 9 – Wed Nov 11 — three empty days

Nothing booked at all across the three. What is open anyway:

  New Dendrology at the Arsenal Gallery, weekdays 9 AM–5 PM, free.
  Bird Watching with Birding Bob — Strawberry Fields Monday 8:30 AM, Loeb Boathouse Thursday 8:30 AM.
  Veterans Day, Wednesday, is 61° and sunny with almost no wind — the last genuinely pleasant day on the forecast. Walk the drives while they are empty.

Thu Nov 12 – Fri Nov 13 — the turn, and the gala moves in for three days

Thursday holds at 57° until evening rain. Friday is 47°, wet and windy — the coldest day since spring.

The CPC Annual Fall-Winter Gala opens Friday, 9 AM to midnight, taking Rumsey Playfield and Bandshell Plaza — and it now runs three days, Friday through Sunday. It was a one-day permit when it first appeared ten days ago, then two days, now three. This is the Central Park Conservancy’s own fundraiser, the organisation that maintains the park. Not public, but the entire SummerStage footprint is out all weekend.

Friday’s public calendar: the Iconic Views tour at 2 PM, and Birding Bob at the Conservatory Garden at 8:30 AM.

Sat Nov 14 — a lantern parade at dusk, and knights behind the Met

46°, breezy, showers around 31%. The best-stocked day of the week:

  St. Martin’s Parade, 3:15–5 PM at Summit Rock — the highest point in the park, and a lantern procession timed to end at dusk. St. Martin’s processions are a European late-autumn tradition, children carrying paper lanterns; Summit Rock at 5 PM in November is exactly the right setting. My pick of the week.
  Santa’s Knights and Gladiators NYC, noon–4 PM on the Lawn Behind the Met Museum. New to the calendar this week and gloriously unexplained by its permit. It returns December 12.
  Model Yacht Racing at Kerbs Boathouse, 9 AM–3 PM. A 20 mph wind means the boats will actually be racing.
  Iconic Views tour at 2 PM; Birding Bob at Loeb 7:30 AM; East Meadow closed.

Sun Nov 15 — the Great Central Park Hike

  Great Central Park Hike, 10 AM from Dana Discovery Center. The Conservancy’s end-to-end walk with guides — and with the leaves down the sightlines open up in a way they do not the rest of the year.
  International Folkdancers at King Jagiello Plaza, 11 AM–3 PM. Open circle, no experience needed; they dance in the cold.
  East Meadow closed; the gala’s final day at Rumsey.

Steady all week

  Five separate closures now all end on exactly December 8 — both Bethesda permits, the Swedish Cottage lawn, the East 96th Street playground lawn, and the East 106th Street lawn maintenance. All five moved from December 6 to December 8 together in this week’s filing. Five permits at five different places do not shift two days by accident. Something is scheduled for that week; the record does not say what.
  Bethesda Terrace closed every day through December 8, a fourteenth extension.
  The Great Lawn is back to zero. Last Saturday’s picnic was its first permit since July and it has now passed, with nothing booked behind it. The drought resumes.
  Field permits: 56, 45 at North Meadow.
  Still nothing on a stage. The Carmel High School Jazz Band plays the Bandshell November 16 — a week tomorrow — then a Vocal Performance December 7.
  Coming: the 30th Annual Holiday Lighting at Dana Discovery Center, December 3 at 5:30 PM.

Quick recap

  Mon–Wed: sunny, 59°–61°, nothing booked. Veterans Day is the best of them.
  Friday it breaks: 47°, rain, 25 mph wind, cold through the weekend.
  Saturday 3:15 PM: St. Martin’s lantern parade at Summit Rock. The one to go to.
  Sunday 10 AM: the Great Central Park Hike from Dana.
  The Conservancy gala holds Rumsey Friday through Sunday — now three days.
  Five park closures all now end December 8, having moved together.

Wrap up warm,
Kin