argus

Where to begin?

After my old college roomie Jon moved to Florida, he began talking about how we needed to take a road trip somewhere. Vegas, New York, somewhere different, somewhere out of the ordinary, a trip that we’d remember for the rest of our lives. We talked about it off and on for several years.

And then, this March, I got engaged :)

I think my status change, looming in the not-too-distant future, prompted ol’ Jon to kick the tires on our nebulous road trip concept, and finally press me into committing to doing something. After some discussion, we settled on New York, New York. The Big Apple. The city so nice they named it twice. There were only a few reasons for our choice, but they were fairly compelling. His dad lived there, so room and board would be free. Jon has been to New York many times throughout his life, so he would be familiar with things. And, of course, I had never been. We finally settled on dates: we’d fly out the evening of May 26th, a Thursday, and return on Tuesday May 31st, the day after Memorial Day. Plane tickets were purchased and calendars were marked.

We talked ahead of time (thanks only to Jon’s focus — my recent work demands combined with my predilection for just going with the flow doesn’t make me the best trip planner, by any stretch) about what sights were “must-see” stops: for me, the World Trade Center site was pretty much my only definite, along with Times Square and the Empire State Building. After discussion, we decided that we’d (for sure) do the following, in addition to my short list: the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Central Park, the Carnegie Deli, the USS Intrepid, the Bronx Zoo. We also came up with some second-string items that we figured we’d get to but weren’t prioritized high enough to schedule around: the Museum of Natural History, some of the more interesting avenues (5th, 7th), the public Library, St. Patrick’s cathedral, and possibly the Statue of Liberty.

Day 0 – Thursday, May 26th
My flight out of Atlanta was to leave at 9:30 pm. We had planned things so that this would also be Jon’s connecting flight from Melbourne to New York. We met up out at the gate and had Guinness’ and caught up while I had dinner. It was a tip-top start, IMO. And to make it even better: my seat had gotten screwed up, so we got the attendant at the gate to move our seats to the very front of “cattle car” (i.e., coach) so we had the bulkhead directly in front of us. Translation: tons of legroom and two windows with an excellent view. In typical Jon fashion, he was pretty fixated on what exactly our approach to LaGuardia would be, and if it would take us east of Manhattan — which would give us a tremendous view of the city at night. As we started our descent, clouds shrouded the darkness below …only to give way at about 8000 feet and reveal that we had indeed taken the exact approach path we had hoped for. And thus began our tour of the grandest of cities: an introduction at night, with her robed in sodium-vapor majesty ;)

After landing, we made our way out of the front of the airport to the bus stop where we were to catch the M60 bus to Astoria Blvd; from there, we’d walk the approximately 1/4 mile to Jon’s dad’s apartment, just west of 30th Avenue and 31st Street in the Astoria district of Queens. Right away outside the airport I could detect some differences — the “we ain’t in Kansas anymore” kinds of things. Namely, the preponderence of cabs — they were everywhere. Being prepared for these sorts of New York differences doesn’t completely prepare you for actually experiencing them.

The bus ride was oddly similar to my MARTA experiences, except for the more sophisticated fare mechanics: exactly two dollars in coins (no pennies!) OR a Metrocard OR… etc. etc. NYC’s mass transit is nothing if not extraordinarily complex …and yet perfectly ordinary at the same time, which only furthers the jaw-dropping nature of it to a rube Southerner like me :)

Jon’s dad lives in the upper half of an apartment owned by a nice older Greek couple — Astoria is primarily a Greek district, from what I gathered, with a fairly large contingent of North African (Egyptian, Moroccan) folks mixed in. It was modest and perfect — three bedrooms, a living/dining room, and a kitchen. On the opposite side of the block from the 30th Avenue train station (N and W trains stop there), I think it was in a pretty perfect location: not in the craziness of downtown, insanely-conveniently close to transit, a 15 minute bus ride from a major airport, and smack in the middle of some unbelievably good, diverse food and shopping. I loved it :)

The forecast for Friday claimed that it would be beautiful — slightly cool, but not too much so, with not a hint of bad weather. We decided to go ahead and hit Bronx Zoo, as it would take a large block of a day and was dependant on us having good weather.

Day 1 — Friday, May 27th
We got up around 8 am and struck out for the local breakfast shop just around the corner. Cash only, this place ruled, and was our morning mainstay every single morning except for the Tuesday that we left. French toast, bacon, scrambled eggs, home fried potatoes, coffee, OJ, toast… it was awesome. And less than a hundred yard walk from our front door. Annnnd right next to the train station, so we could eat and run if we wanted — or, at the very least, do some great people-watching while we ate. Which we always did :)

To the zoo: picked up the N train at 30th Ave in Queens, switched to the uptown 5 train at Lexington Ave. in Manhattan, then switched to the uptown 2 at East 180th Street in the Bronx …and then got off 1 stop later and walked to the zoo entrance. I won’t spend much time talking about the zoo — I’ll let the pictures speak. What I will say: the monorail through the Asian exhibits was a bit disappointing. And pray that you don’t go on school field trip day — school groups were apparently getting free college scholarships or something, cause there were just too many kids hard at work proving that age-old axiom, “the best birth control is prolonged exposure to other people’s children” :D I sound cranky, but it was really a good time — I love zoos anyway, and the butterfly and gorilla exhibits were particularly awesome.

After a quick photo op from a bridge peering into the botanical gardens, we hiked back to the nearest train station and headed home. A quick wash up, then we struck out for dinner: Brazilian churascarria at a family restaurant (but then again, they were ALL family restaurants) just a short walk from the apartment. Needless to say, it was a delight — and inexpensive, to boot.

With dinner done, we returned to the apartment and then Jon and I decided to hit Times Square. He insisted that I see it at night, and on a Friday night in particular it was sure to be impressive. Heck, any night Times Square would be impressive. And of course, it was. Footnote of awesomeness: the N train runs straight to the 42nd Street station — Times Square. After walking around Times Square proper, we wandered north a bit on Broadway, then headed east down one of the streets — I wanted a shot of Radio City Music Hall. After I had gotten that picture, Jon became convinced that we were near enough to Rockefeller Center to stroll over and check it out. After some minor navigational challenges, we made it. Pictures were taken …and then the barking o’ the dogs (read: aching feet) led us to the nearest train station home.

Day 2 — Saturday, May 28th
We started out with breakfast at the same diner, then headed for “the Met” — the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Which was, in a word, stunning. As enjoyable as all the exhibits we did see (and again, I’ll keep my words to a minimum and let the pictures speak), nothing had prepared me for the “Nineteenth Century European Artists” exhibit …that we checked out “in passing” before we left. Monet, Manet, Renoir, Picasso, Pissarro, Van Gogh. Breathtaking, mainly because it was a total surprise. On your next trip to New York, you must visit the Met.

From there, we were going to make our way through Central Park, just to look around — but we had to change out of our jeans somehow first. Jeans made sense in the cooler mornings (and in the cool museum), but for the rest of the day’s trekking, shorts were in order. However, the security at the Met wouldn’t let us take our bags into the bathrooms, so we did what any rational New Yorker would have done: we changed into shorts in the park :D Clearly, from the pictures I took, there were far more people wearing far less than we ever were, so we weren’t too concerned.

That hurdle out of the way, we walked west midway into the park to check out the the southern end of the Great Lawn and the Turtle Pond. Some Really Hot Girls out on the dock asked Jon to take their picture:

Girl (to Jon): Could you please take our picture?
Jon (taking camera): Sure. …how do you want me to frame it?
Girl (coyly): Oh… we’ll trust you to ..you know, do it however you want. We’re pretty open about that sort of thing. (smile)
Jon: Ok… click!

…and, of course, all of that innuendo sailed right past Jon, and right into the Turtle Pond :D

From there, we hiked back east, exited the park, and caught a train down Lexington Avenue to head us in the direction of the Empire State Building, our last scheduled stop of the day. Along the way, however, I wanted to stop at Lexington and E. 60th Street, where rumor (and the Thursday edition of the Times) had it that a shopper could pick up designer bag knock-offs from some of the more shady street vendors, and I was angling to land something special for Nichole. I mean, really, what says “I love you” like a hot Dooney & Burke bag from Manhattan? After hunting for a while, we did finally find a street vendor selling shish kebabs …but no one selling the particular item that I was after for Nay. We ate in the street amidst a lane closed for construction, and then continued south to Empire State.

The Empire State Building was, not surprisingly, extraordinary — once we made it up to the observation deck. This took nearly two hours, however. Two hours of awful standing still …after nearly two days of walking. Needless to say, this was pretty agonizing, especially for Jon (who already has a chronic foot condition). It was well worth it in the end — but I will recommend to anyone going to New York: if you plan on doing the Met and the Empire State building, drop the $38 for a “CitiPass”: it will cover your admission costs to both (even though there’s no actual “cost” for the Met) and will, most importantly, allow you to skip the line for commoners at the Empire State Building. Once again, pictures speak louder. After we descended from on high, we took in some Starbucks and rested our weary soles …then jumped the nearest N train we could find and rode on home. Dinner that night was at a fine Greek establishment, whereupon I had a sit-back-and-think-about-what-you’ve-done amount of stuffed grape leaves — without looking like I’d eaten much at all. It was superb :)

I don’t think I’ve slept so good in years as I did that night. 8 am came far, far too early the next morning..

Day 3 — Sunday, May 29th
Day 3 was packed. Post-breakfast, we hopped the good ol’ N and rode it all the way down to lower Manhattan, switching at the last minute to the E — which delivered us to the World Trade Center site.

I don’t really know what to say here. What can be said? Mostly, it was what you’d expect the WTC site to be: a huge hole in the ground, full of construction, bearing zero resemblance to the now-immortalized montages from that day. That’s not to say that it wasn’t pretty powerful — although this was one of those rare stops that I think I would have preferred to have made alone. We walked all the way around the site, taking in the displays along the east side detailing the Center’s history and the timeline of events on September 11th. Rounding the southwest corner necessitated ducking through some financial center, and then we were back up on the northside of the site — all the while, Jon’s dad was regaling us with his experiences that day (he was working one block from the site on 9/11/2001). Fascinating stuff, and I’m glad I went. Now here’s hoping that the Freedom Tower can get nipped and something more defiantly American put up instead ;)

From there we caught a train up to the Port, where we were planning on checking out the USS Intrepid — and the USS John F. Kennedy, recently returned from deployment in the Middle East. Upon reaching the port, we discovered that there was a 3+ hour line (in the sun) just to get on the JFK. Nixing that idea, as disappointing as that was, was a great decision in hindsight. We made our way up on the Intrepid and strolled around, examining the bridge as well as the aircraft displayed up on the flight deck (including an SR-71 and a MIG-21).

After that, we hiked uptown along 7th Avenue to the Carnegie Deli, a much ballyhooed establishment serving up monstrous sandwiches and, according to Jon, divine cheesecake. We ducked the out-the-door line after discovering it was for seating inside, picked up our food and walked another two blocks to Central Park, where we sat and ate. The temperature was perfect, the food was superb, and the people watching endlessly entertaining.

From there, we skirted down the perimeter of the park to 5th Avenue, ducked into F. A. O. Schwartz for a pit stop, then struck out south along 5th, checking out shops and sights and an unplanned and totally breathtaking stop at St. Patrick’s Cathedral. My hunt for the purse continued along the way, as I discovered via an off-the-cuff interview with a well-to-do female shopping for bags back at the 7th Avenue street fair, the types of vendors that would most likely have what I was after weren’t the ones with big, bold displays. Rather, they were the ones operating pretty much like drug dealers: one fellow standing out in the pedestrian traffic with a two-way radio, and the “bagman” manning a dolly cart laden with desirables stuffed into a nondescript cardboard box off out of the way, usually a few yards down a side street. This was a real hoot, sidling up to these characters and asking if they had what I was after. Remarkably — unbelievably — none of them did …although they did offer me many other alternatives: Prada, Gucci, etc. At this point, I conceded defeat on the Great Bag Hunt. If the “hot” vendors on freakin’ 5th Avenue didn’t have it, NO one would. The 5th Avenue trek ended at the NYC Public Library — which was closed. After a group “WTF” moment over that, we headed over to the 42nd St station at Times Square and jumped the N home.

Dinner that night was uneventful, but late: pizza at a tiny Greek restaurant. The toppings were applied after the slice was cooked/heated, but the radio station they had on was playing rocking swing/dance music. Returning home was immediately followed by crashing hard and fast.

Day 4 — Monday, May 30th
Day 4 was something of a freebie: we had already seen everything that were “must see” stops for this trip, so we were left with something of a dilemma as to what to do. We ended up settling on a jaunt through Chinatown, then hop the train up to the Museum of Natural History, with a quick stop of at Grand Central Station on the way. And that’s pretty much what happened, except the jaunt through Chinatown ended up being a skimming past Chinatown and a stroll through Little Italy :) Little Italy (at least the street that we walked down, which seemed to be right through the heart of it) is pretty much “restaurant-restaurant-restaurant-shop-restaurant-restaurant…” Not that this is a bad thing, either. And all the restaurants have seating out on the sidewalk. A very cool feel to the whole area, and I was somewhat disappointed that it wasn’t lunchtime so that we could not only partake of one of the restaurants but also just see what the street was like with more people around. I had settled on getting Nichole a mere t-shirt, so we ducked into a shop that had a reasonable selection. My spirits were lifted by the discovery of a little “baby tee” t-shirt with the classic “I (heart) NY” on it — mainly since Nichole looks uber hot in such things. Really, she looks uber hot in pretty much anything …but I digress.

Grand Central Station is another case of just what you’d expect ..mostly: an enormous transit station. And by “enormous”, I mean HUGE. The main floor doesn’t really convey the scope of what’s going on there, but from what I was able to gather there are an insane number of (surface) train lines that come in from the surrounding areas, in addition to the six (I think…) subway lines that stop there. A great photo op, and we did a quick and early lunch in the dining area beneath the main atrium.

The Museum of Natural History was a mixed bag: the Rose Center (space and geology) was extraordinary, mostly due to the excellent planetarium presentation we saw. The rest of the museum was better-than-average (REAL dinosaur bone exhibits, as opposed to casts!), but I think by this point I was pretty much whupped. Several days of walking all day long had taken its toll, and we pretty well blew through the latter half of the exhibits that we had wanted to see.

Dinner that evening was at an Egyptian restaurant — talk about atmosphere. They had seating behind the main restaurant, in what was essentially a large, permanent tent, complete with TVs showing Egyptian dramas and a cat. The food was outstanding, and was served in (distressingly) huge portions. After the usual walk back home through the neighborhood, we packed up most of our stuff in preparation for our early morning. Alarms set: 5am.

Day 5 — Tuesday, May 31st
No one should have to wake up before 8am after four days like we had had. Somehow, we did. And somehow made it to the bus stop (where our New York adventure started) about two blocks north, just in time to catch the bus to LaGuardia. And yes, as I mentioned before, buses in NYC are remarkably similar to MARTA, at least in terms of the riding experience — they have “nicer” (in my opinion) interiors, where “nicer” is a decidedly relative term ;)

As incredible as the trip was, I was understandably excited to be going home — with my wedding less than two months away, I was anxious to see my HOT fiancee :) The prospect of sleeping in my own bed was also an appealing thought, even though I certainly have no complaints about Mr. Kaplan’s accomodations.

The third day there, walking back up 5th Avenue, it occured to me that taking pictures in NYC is different than taking pictures in… well, in just about anywhere else. NYC is infused with such a natural constant vibrance that just about any picture there feels different, somehow. Perhaps my perspective is skewed by having actually been there and having experiential memories of the scenes that I captured …but maybe not :) As an example: this picture of the Gucci storefront on 5th Avenue was one of a few that I took on our stroll — but notice that not one person is in it, save for the image reflected in the doors. This is remarkable, because the sidewalks were crazy busy, and that shot just so happened to catch a gap in the other pedestrians. When I took it I certainly didn’t notice anything; browsing my shots later that night, that picture stuck out like a sore thumb. Trying to figure out why this was my initial impression led me to that realization: catching a picture devoid of people, of life, was a rare, odd thing. Which led me to the observation that picture taking in New York is fundamentally different for exactly that reason. I welcome thoughts/comments on this observation from other photographic travellers :)

So that’s it. After years of saying “I’ll go ..one day” — “one day” (several, actually) finally happened. Mad, crazy, over-the-top thanks to Jon for spurring me on and actually going with me — but most especially to Jon’s dad for not only putting us up for nearly six days, but for putting up with us for that long. To say that I’m looking forward to my next trip would be an understatement. I dunno when a return sojourn will be, but I feel as if I’ve accomplished something …and even had some culture sneak in while I wasn’t paying attention. I’d like to try out my subway knowledge, see if I can navigate efficiently. And I’d like to experience the city again, and experience someone else experiencing the city. And I do mean you, Nay ;)

Here’s to that :)