They say never meet your heroes. You’ll just be disappointed. They’ll be too arrogant or rude or just plain ignore you. Fortunately for me that hasn’t been the case.

I was not expecting to be impressed. New York City’s latest park isn’t even in the city at all. It exists on a man made island about a hundred yards into the Hudson River near the end of West 14th Street.

You may be familiar with the ancient Greek story of the Phoenix. A beautiful, colorful bird that rises from the ashes of its former self born anew. And you’ve probably heard of Icarus who used his beautiful wax wings to fly too close to the sun and came crashing to the earth drowned in the sea.

Twice a year the setting sun lines up with the Manhattan street grid creating a beautiful view of light between skyscrapers. People literally stand in the middle of busy streets to take photos of this solar event. What kind of crazy person would be stupid enough to do that? This kind of crazy person.