Central Park’s most wanted

On my second trip to the Big Apple in 2003 with my 2 friends Dawn and Trina we decided to get up early and go on a boat trip around Manhattan and Ellis, Staten and liberty islands. It was an extremely cold day and one of the bridges was stuck with the ice and it took a little while longer than anticipated to return to our pier.

For some odd reason we didn’t eat on the boat despite it being a long trip, so by the time we were on dry land we were starving. Trina had heard of a pub in Central Park – The Tavern on the Green. It took a nano-second to realise this was no pub, especially when the manager took the time to show us around the crystal decked restaurant and the Lulu Guiness shop!

It was all going so well, we were all tarted up and smelling lovely from the freebies in the bathroom and comfortably settled in the top bar tucking into jacket spuds and sipping on cocktails.

Therein lay the problem! Dawn vs long island ice tea! At an alarmingly fast pace she became a semi-conscious wreck vomiting in the corner. I did my best for a while mopping up the sick and staying off the radar of the staff, hoping that she would recover and we could leave with no one being the wiser. But the very same manager from earlier in the evening spotted me with a handful of napkins from the loo and stopped me for a little chat about getting my vomit covered friend out by the back door as quickly as possible. Luckily Dawn was fully recovered the next day and we had a fabulous time the rest of the holiday.

So on the final day of our North American 80th birthday adventure my mum and I decided to have a stroll around Central Park. I couldn’t resist going back to Tavern on the Green to see if there were any photos of me and my friends as a warning not to let us in under any circumstances. But I’m happy to report there was no evidence of any wanted posters and we were welcomed in with open arms…. well not quite, but we did find a lovely spot in the garden in the glorious sunshine where we could sit and people watch all afternoon.

We had time for a turn around the part of Riverside Park that was used to film the final scene of You’ve Got Mail when Kathleen and Joe finally get it together, before heading off for our flight home.