Holiday Train Show

Once in a while I stumble upon a special non-food related event in the city and all I want to do is blog about it. Despite the fact that the building replicas at the New York Botanical Garden's holiday train show looked edible, this will be one of my rare non-foodie posts.

It's Tuesday and I'm coming off a fabulous and memorable week. A man I've gotten to know very well over the past five months came to visit me from Seattle. We "met" through work, and after hours of phone conversations and emails, our professional relationship turned personal and romantic, with neither of us knowing what the other looked like. Hawkeye and I hit it off more than either of us expected, and as Winette calls it, I've climbed aboard the La-La-Land Express (quite fitting with this post's theme). We enjoyed a lot of fun meals together, which I will be writing about very soon, but I wanted to share some pictures, though poor from my cell phone, of our morning at the NYBG.

I went to the NYBG previously with my roommates for a Chihuly exhibit. With bottles of wine, bags of crackers, cheese, and blankets, we sat under the stars and enjoyed Chihuly's glass sculptures throughout the conservatory and in the reflecting pools outside. It was one of my favorite nights in the city and I decided I would stay abreast of all NYBG events.

When I first read about the train show, I wasn't sure Hawkeye would be into it. To my surprise and excitement, he was just as enthusiastic as I was. He claims Seattle isn't very Christmas-friendly and he was eager to do anything and all things festive.

The garden is a short train ride on Metro North. Just hop off the Botanical Garden stop and across the street you'll find the entrance. I was a little worried when we walked through most of the conservatory building and saw no signs of any trains or conductors. We wandered in and out of the plants, followed the never-ending path and arrows that lead to the train show, but still no trains. Finally, on the verge of wanting my money back, we spotted a lone train suspended from the ceiling. It was almost taunting us as we followed it down its track to the rest of the exhibit. I pictured it animated saying, "I told you so, I told you so. Patience, Mona. Patience."

Part of the fun was watching families and their kids "ooh" and "aah" at every train that went by. They'd sit and watch the same train twenty times but still jump with excitement each time it came around the bend as if it was the first. To me, the most exciting thing about the exhibit wasn't the trains. I fell in love with the landmarks. The artist and creator Paul Busse built the structures out of all-natural materials : berries, seeds, pods, and vines. He's from Kentucky but you'd never guess it. You'd think someone with such an eye for the beauty of New York City architecture would be a native New Yorker. Hawkeye and I were curious how long it took them to build the 1,200 feet of track and our trusty pamphlet says it takes about 20 people about ten days to build. That's all? Any landmark you can think of in and around Manhattan was somewhere along the windy train tracks. Below is Saint Patrick's Cathedral, and as you saw above, Belvedere Castle from Central Park and even the Statue of Liberty were among the beautifully intricate pieces.

Christmas is less than a week away, and if you're feeling the need to escape the city for a couple of hours, head to the train show and take a ride on your very own polar urban express.