Union Square Park

In New York City, professional sports is as popular a conversation topic as pizza or the weather. Home to some of the greatest dynasties and underdog stories alike, we'll tackle three boroughs this week to visit their home fields. We start at the Barclays Center to visit the Nets and Islanders, then cross the Manhattan bridge to visit "The World's Most Famous Arena," Madison Square Garden, home to the Knicks and Rangers. Next is a long walk to the Bronx to visit the world's most successful professional sports franchise, the New York Yankees. We conclude with a trip to Queens to visit those lovable losers of Citi Field, the New York Mets.

Episode two of our movies of NY walks focuses on a single film - the 2001 Wes Anderson comedy The Royal Tenenbaums. Anderson's fanciful version of New York hops all over Manhattan, from Battery Park to the Church of the Intercession to the Waldorf Astoria New York.

Calvert Vaux and Frederick Law Olmsted literally shaped the landscape of New York, with an influence that touches millions of lives every day. On this walk we take a day to visit experience nearly all of their local contributions, starting at Morningside Park and hanging a right to take in Riverside. Cutting through the lower half of Central Park, we take the Manhattan Bridge over to Fort Greene Park and head for a ramble through Prospect Park. We come out the other side to take a long stroll down the Olmstead designed Ocean Parkway, then up the Prospect Park again before concluding the day on another Olmstead route, Eastern Parkway. Excluded in this walk due to distance is the previously visited Forest Park in Queens.

Our Downtown walk takes us on a wild path through lower Manhattan in a quest to reach our allotted 26.2 miles daily. Going no higher than 26th Street, we rub up against every neighborhood and site to see imaginable, including the skyscrapers and antiquity of the Financial District; the food and culture of Little Italy/Chinatown; passing views of the three lower bridges; walks through both Villages and so much more.