Freedom Is[n't] Free

These last few days, I checked off a few long-awaited (and free!) activities off my list. Friday night Evan and I headed up to the Highline.

I had read about it and wasn't sure what the big deal was other than that it was an elevated park. But once we made our way up, it was clear what all the excitement was about!

The park is created on old rails and it incorporates the tracks within the landscape design.

My favorite were these lounge chairs that not only fit on top of the tracks, they also rolled along them!

The next morning, Evan met me after work in Times Square and we got an early start on our Fourth of July plans. We headed to the Intrepid. It's a WWII aircraft carrier and was one of the coolest spots I've been in the city. We got in for free, thanks to the Bank of America free museums program.

Evan totally geeked out!

Okay, I guess I geeked a little too...

There was so much to see!

Along with the carrier and the planes docked on the deck, there was the Concorde and a submarine. We didn't see the submarine because of the hour-long wait, but everything else was so impressive.

And free for us!

That afternoon, we headed to Battery Park for a free concert with indie rockstars Conor Oberst and Jenny Lewis. We ran into some favorite familiar faces there... along with thousands of other indie hipsters. I took a little nap and awoke to a huge crowd that reminded me of Portlanders... from the way they dressed, danced, smelled... all of it.

This year the fireworks moved to the Hudson. We headed down to 14th Street. Since police blocked our way to the pier where our friends were sitting, we stood in the streets with a few million of our closest neighbors. We couldn't hear the music playing along, so Evan chose to sing instead.

Our view was okay. Above the crowd, the street lights, and beyond the buildings was quite a lovely display.

We moved our scheduled bbq to Sunday since we didn't have enough time on the Fourth. Evan was pretty stoked to grill this huge slab of beef that he bought in the meatpacking district. You can find great deals there!

As the token vegetarian in the group, I enjoyed the smell of the steak and the taste of the cupcakes. YUM!!! We had a really great 5th of July BBQ with our friends and then I caught up on some much-needed sleep. Still, I had to get up early the next morning for my next adventure...

This year, tickets to Shakespeare in the Park are extremely hard to get. The play is free, but you have to wait in line to get tickets -- two tickets are granted to each person. And since this summer Anne Hathaway is starring in Twelfth Night, the tickets are really hard to get! Kathryn, Russell, and I headed to the line in Central Park at 7:00am and there were already 400 people in front of us. We weren't sure what our chances were. The first bunch of seats are given to sponsors, and there are also many set aside for the virtual line. In a 1,900 seat theatre, we were sure we had a chance.

At one point, a member of the staff came to talk to us, and announced that before us stood the people sitting near the Rock of Hope, then those near the Tree of Possibility. As for us, we were sitting on the Grass of Uncertainty.

At 1:00pm, after six hours of waiting, we didn't get in.

So the next day we started earlier. At 5:30, we had a bigger group show up. We brought a survival kit, including donuts, games, and rain gear. We were much closer, with maybe 100 people ahead of us.

And we got in!

It was one of the best shows I've seen in a really long time. It was so good it made me cry! Yes! At a comedy! :)

So far, the summer of free fun has been going rather well. I hope yours is going great too!