My daughter and I drove down to the City Tuesday to see The Gates and take some pictures. On Tuesday and Wednesday we wandered through the park and covered about the same area as Barry, with one side trip up to the 96th street area to get some pictures of the Gothic Bridge.

The scene in the park was pretty impressive. The park was full of visitors, including many foreign-speaking guests. The folks in the park, who I am sure have a very slow February normally, were all super busy and, as Greg said, the vendors were everywhere and were selling stuff quickly. I am also sure that the park hasn’t been this clean in some time.

The gates themselves were very peaceful and had a strong contrast to the snow and flat colors of a Northeast winter. It was also neat to look around and see them everywhere stretching off into the distance. They may not be for everyone to appreciate, but those in the park seemed pretty impressed. The benefits to the Park and the City, as well as the Nurture New York’s Nature Inc. group will be great I am sure.

("Nurture New York's Nature, Inc. (NNYN) seeks to create public awareness of the importance of nurturing New York's nature to the health and well being of the City's inhabitants. NNNYN supports the arts for their power to define and advance that goal. NNYN was formed in 2003 as the on going steward of a license agreement donated by the artist's Christo and Jeanne-Claude to renowned mediator, Theodore W. Kheel. The artists' gift gave NNYN an exclusive, worldwide royalty-free license to use the intellectual property rights from The Gates Project for Central Park, to raise money to support NNYN's mission.")

Some people may view this all as a waste of money but there are also folks who would tell us that people who spend thousands and thousands of dollars on model lighthouses are nuts and they could probably tell us where they think we could better spend our money. A few thousand for a few to enjoy or a few million for millions to enjoy, to each his own I guess.