I was at home and working this week, but it felt like a vacation. With one of my sisters in town, my usually prosaic off hours became a mad dash to see and do things I either would never have thought of or had been putting off. I love being a tourist in my own town.

One of the places we stopped by was this park near the Hudson River whose name I didn't notice (and, somehow, can't find online) -- just one of those tiny corners of Manhattan I seem to forget about and suddenly rediscover. A policeman strolled the oval looking bored; across the lawn, a blond man and a curly-haired girl rehearsed some kind of scene with a coach in a white T-shirt. We were flush against the West Side Highway but it seemed preternaturally quiet inside, despite the pile of bikers in the grass and the older couple on the bench next to us. New Jersey looked on, placid.

I'm looking forward to coming back this summer, with a book, a friend, or both.

Photo: ShellyS