Culture in Woodlawn

Dominic and I spent father's day enjoying the cool, sunny weather in Woodlawn. Woodlawn is just about the furthest north you can get in the Bronx, but is conveniently tied to our neighborhood by a parkway where we can take our bikes. Nothing like leaving the Dominican Republic for Ireland and Puerto Rico in one day.

Woodlawn is heavily populated by an immigrant Irish population. There are pubs everywhere and walking down the street you can easily hear strong accents from people of all ages. In the restaurant where we stopped to have lunch there was a sweet pedal/Celtic harpist named Alice who played a tune for us and inspired me to take up lessons. She recommended starting with the piano, but don't you think the soothing sounds of a harp would help release tensions in our busy, noisy apartment building?

On our way home, we stopped at a park that has always been on our morning running route. We hadn't ever paid attention, but today to our surprise we realized the Bronx has a remote-control car race track just minutes from our house. Sure enough, this Sunday there's a race competition at 9 a.m. It's a funny little hobby, but the Puerto Ricans seemed devoted.

Having bikes has been one of the greatest joys of our summer so far. As we rode along the parkway we enjoyed seeing the families gathered to celebrate the holiday. There were certainly open fires, littering and barbecuing, but with so much culture (i.e. music) keeping people happy and the park festive, I couldn't see why we would complain.