Summer is slowly fading in New York City, so I’m glad that I spent Sunday morning making the most of the clear blue skies and sunshine in Central Park. We hired a row boat on Central Park Lake, followed by brunch at the Loeb Boathouse.

Hiring a row boat on Central Park Lake

My boyfriend and I went to Central Park with three of his colleagues from work. Before we hired the row boats, we put our name down for a table at The Loeb Boathouse, which overlooks the lake. There was an hour wait, which suited us perfectly because boat hire is for an hour.

The Loeb Boathouse gets super busy on weekends, so putting your name down for brunch before you hire the boats is crucial. As soon as we were finished with the boats, our table was only a few minutes away.

We hired two boats for an hour, which was $15 plus a $20 deposit which is refunded at the end. I was surprised it was so cheap!

Rowing is harder than it looks, and I let David do most of the heavy lifting for most of the time. I had a go, and was not as bad as I expected, but was glad to have a pair of strong arms to hand the oars back to once my own started to feel like jelly.

The view from the water is a mirage of blue and green. The lake up close is a vibrant green, but in the distance looks blue. Surrounded by green foliage and sitting pretty under a blue sky, the majestic white buildings (mansions!) of Central Park West shone brightly in the middle and made pretty reflections in the water.

The lake was busy, but we only had a few near-collisions. There is so much space that it’s not hard to find a quiet moment on the water.

After an hour of paddling (or in my case, directing), we’d worked up an appetite. When we got back to the Boathouse the queue for the waitlist was snaking through the restaurant and out the door, so we were lucky we’d put our name down an hour earlier.

Brunch at the Loeb Boathouse

Because we were a group of five, we were seated at the best seats in the house – at one of the large round tables lining the balcony at the water’s edge. The food is on the pricey side and it’s not mind blowing, but I was hungry after being out on the water and happy with the beautiful view over the lake.