Originally posted January 2014.
A good reminder to find time for sledding this winter!
Saturday in New York City. A perfect winter day, sunny and cold with snow blanketing every untrafficked part of the city. Three gals finished brunch, barely remembered the plastic purple sled they almost left under the table, and headed off to Central Park.
We three California girls: Miranda, Charlotte, and I all grew up in San Francisco. At this point we’ve survived many east coast winters. We know how to stay warm, we’ve mastered winter accessories (warm must win over cute. Sigh).
Not one of us had more than a clue about sledding! Cluelessness wasn’t going to stop us from trying.
San Francisco is notorious for its hills. New York is not. Usually the three of us are what you might call “hill snobs”. What, you call that a hill? Please, that’s barely an incline! We searched for the perfected slope for our sledding maiden voyage. As we walked, Miranda shared what she knew about sledding, “My friend Dave broke his arm sledding a few years ago,” she paused, “And you remember Naomi? She went sledding in college, slid into a broken bottle and had to get stitches all up her arm.”
Suddenly every hill we saw, every bump in the road seemed too steep.
We finally found a incline hill that didn’t scare the shit out of us seemed just right. I was elected to go first as I had been sledding before. Once. Six years ago.
Unfortunately my mind was void of memories of that experience, filled instead with thoughts of broken arms/stitches/teeth getting knocked out/not having health insurance. I wouldn’t let my friends down. I plunked the sled down in the snow, awkwardly sat upon it, grabbed on to the purple plastic handles, and shuffled my feet to give myself a push. Then I was flying through the air, sliding down the pathetic excuse for a hill at perhaps the speed of a squirrel. Fast enough to have fun!
After a few trips down, we all felt a little more confident! We decided to go look for a better hill.
Soon we came across the perfect hill. Lots of other sledders seemed to think so. Sure, they were all under the age of six. I’d like to think they had just as much (and probably more!) sledding experience as we did!
Despite our initial tentativeness, we had a blast. Sledding in Central Park is so fun!
We didn’t need to go down big hills! We shrieked with delight, sliding down two at a time on our purple saucer, the third person playing camera man.
I really needed this reminder that it is fun to go outside in the winter! Central Park is so gorgeous covered in snow!
It’s always tempting to stay in and warm and hibernate all season. Must resist! I can’t wait to go sledding again. What are other fun outside winter activities?
See you had a blast and no one got hurt….good winter fun . I always skated at Rockefeller Ctr. the day after Christmas every year so much fun! Loved the pictures of the snowey park
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I didn’t know you grew up in San Francisco! I more or less grew up in the Bay Area too 🙂
This post made me smile so much. I haven’t gone sledding since 2010. My country is so freaking flat that we had to go to the river and sled down the dam, but despite not being used to inclines and sledding down them we were completely reckless. We had a sled like yours but didn’t know what the correct word for that kind of sled was. It went down in history as the “butt sled”, hahaha.
Even though Central Park looks amazing in these pictures and I’d love to go sledding there, I think I’ll save my visit for a warmer season!
x Envy
Envy Fisher recently posted…Spray Can Confessions: Sticker Slappin’