camping at central park

every year the park service in nyc does a lottery.
the winners of this lottery get the rare chance to legally camp in central park.
one of these rare chances was june the 14th.
i entered and i entered my sister.
she said, "i'm going to win this crap."
and she did.
they choose approximately 30 people 3 times a year. (so the odds of winning are nil...)
someone told me they knew someone that had entered 8 years in a row and hadn't been chosen.
thank you little sister for the luck.
i frantically emailed and asked our friends if any of them had sleeping bags/ camping gear.
i was pleasantly surprised to find out that the park supplied a tent.
the kindness of others supplied our bedding. (thank you tracy and keller family)
we packed up our gear and headed out.
here's the picture play by play.

our entourage 

never gotten more looks/ more confused looks in all my nyc life.

 when we arrived they had some crafts the kids could do. 

i made mary a pink raccoon 

she made herself a modern art owl.  

 she gave up the artistic route instantly when animals were introduced. 

then she found this raccoon pelt. 

it instantly replaced her former stuffed animal. 

 we had to take a photo shoot with such awesomeness. 

 family pics! 

we sat up the tent. 

mary got rudely introduced to tent life. 

we gave her a dinner picnic to make up for it. 

 i love having my sisters here. 

 when it comes to taking pictures with us (here parents) she does not approve. 

 while we were lounging in our tent we heard some rhythmic music. 

mary's music laced soul couldn't resist. 

first she inappropriately played the xylophone with the maracas. 

 a lot of the instruments were made from nature. 

made me feel like a real mountaineer musician. 

 then mary was lulled into a trance via a massive flute. 

 but she couldn't stay away from making music of her own. 

(this time with the proper tools)

 after the jam sesh

she found a duck. 

which she chased around the camp site for an undisclosed amount of time. 

 after forcing the duck to take flight 

mary wanted to try her hand at it too. 

 following a hardcore duck chase and an acrobatic show 

we took to a night hike. 

 we found about 6 raccoons! 

i was told that one ranger saw 15 at one time at this bridge.

highlight of the whole night hike. 

 we wandered around. 

saw some awesome night views of the park. 

walked by a waterfall. 

tried to find some bats. 

saw a castle. 

it was quite something to see the park like this at night. 

 a teeny hat thief. 

 we got back to camp. 

they had some smores stuff. 

we snuggled in hoping for a nice nights sleep. 

impossible with a camping toddler. 

when she woke up the first time- i suspected it was 5 a.m. or so. 

looked at my phone- 2:30..... 

soooo dale ended up taking her home at 3:30. 

this was our (the 3 remaining) view the next morning. 

 i guess central park is filled with nocturnal birds because those birds started chirping around midnight. 

for some reason traffic was really bad around 2 also..... 

wasn't bad at 9-12, but when 2 came around it got crazy. 

the combo pack of traffic, nocturnal animals, and mary made for a sleepless night. 

 sorry one more tent shot.... because that lighting was to die for. 

this was mary's first camping trip. 

she didn't sleep... perhaps she was scared of the nocturnal animals... or maybe she just wanted to see them and not hear them. 

regardless i don't think i will go camping again until our youngest is at least 5, possibly 10. 

i wasn't about to give up a chance to camp in central park on account of having a wee tot. 

it really was one of my greatest nyc experiences thus far.

who gets to camp in central park? (my mom said, "can't you camp their any night like the homeless?"-funny mom....i guess who gets to legally camp.)

the park service treated us real right. 

because they did i have this experience to tell the grandkids. 

happy start of week everyone. 

a toast to adventure!