After an unscheduled hiatus from my regular posts, I find myself in the fancied position of feathering my feasts. Not that the rotunda of my waist exceeds any expectations already gleaned from past eating exercises, but I find the movemento rapido is not up to standards.
How is this possible with all the heat and triviality postured for us in the Great Apple? Yeppers, on our recent visit to the city that never sleeps there was a plethora of parading pretenders. Vanquished by the fear of another aviation inception. But alas they strive on in subways lacing the island and the other four boroughs.
Yep with all but a week we were unable to visit them all: two left. Staten Island and Brooklyn. Although within a mile of Brooklyn on the same named bridge. Standing in the center roasting in the Atlantic coast heat. Drawing ourselves back onto the Island and into the area around ground zero. Wall Street, China Town and Battery park. Grifters and con artists abound.
Formal rips as well with a half hour waiting line for tickets we didn’t stand in, purchasers only to find out the real line up for the statue was over 5 hours long. We waited 10 and boarded the water taxi. Badda boom. Onto the water and up the two rivers past the two islands for a tour of all that excites on the waterfronts.
Little Italy, Soho, Greenwich Village, 5th Avenue, Madison Avenue, Empire State Building, Rockefeller Center, Central Park, The Obelisk, The Guggenheim, Times Square often, The Waldorf Astoria, stayed in the Fashion District, City Hall, China town, tall towers, Lexington Ave, the Upper East Side, Strands Book Store with 18 miles of books, Yankee Stadium, new and old, Hell’s Kitchen (I have the shirt), City Field (read Shea Stadium), many many many Subways, Madison Square Gardens, Penn Station, Broadway, Trinity Church, NYSE, the Federal Reserve, The US Federal District Court, Martha Stewart Studios, the Fashion Institute, Grand Central, too many parks to delineate, ate great Cannolis, ate warm street pretzels with mustard, Jacqueline Kennedy Reservoir, concrete canyons of all descriptions, and too many sights to state in the city of the same state name.
I assume at one time you could stroll the sidewalks. No longer. Throngs populate both sides of the street everywhere. No need to wait for the lights with all one way streets. Look at the traffic, when it stops, walk. Hurry because they are not stopping for you. You do the hustle and look for the refuge of air conditioning. Uptown and downtown are no outdoor cafes. You have to go to Greenwich or Little Italy for them. Languish with roadside entertainment with every passerby.
We sidestepped the Double Decker bus tours, MOMA, the Museum of Natural science, the two aforementioned boroughs, Westchester, eating in the park, the Bronx zoo, a show on Broadway, the Chrysler building, Pier 17, The Museum of Indigenous Peoples, the 5 hour waiting line for the Statue tour, LaGuardia, and Rikers island thankfully.
Many coffee chats with co-residers in our fair hotel. Aussies to Iowans. Wines were not common in the common. Beer was cold and the food was all good. Good thing we left the car at home. Seems my darling has posted to the Plant Place for faces some pics for those in the link. Come by for a Joe and we can peruse more.
Mark Hull Du Calumet, first of the coterie of York, Son of Don, Scion of Karl in the House of Pfunkstadt, Connubial of Suzanne, Yeoman to the Hun of Honda, Prevailing in the Seat of Hespeler.
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