Tuesday morning run

This time I made it around the reservoir, seen here from the north side. It still amazes me that New York has been able to preserve a park of this size on Manhattan Island in the midst of all the skyscrapers.

Pickles and celery

Carnegie Deli is an interesting place. Before your meal they bring you a big plate of pickles in varying degrees of, well, pickleness. Very good. Very different. They also have a celery flavored soda called Cel Ray. I typically don't like celery, but this wasn't too bad. Nothing I would want to drink with every meal, but different. And part of the "New York experience".

A lotta help from my friend

For dinner tonight we took the advice of my friend Rachel, who I know from last September's mission trip to the Dominican Republic, and went to Carnegie Deli. Rachel has actually given me a wealth of advice for this trip, as she lives on Manhattan between Central Park and Times Square (primo location). Almost every activity we have planned for the New York stretch of our trip has been on Rachel's advice and I am eternally grateful to her for guiding us to such a great time. To express our gratitude we asked her to have dinner with us tonight, and she did. The pic below is living proof- the three of us outside Carnegie Deli.

For dinner I had a Woody Allen- corned beef and pastrami on rye- and I know three cows must've made the ultimate sacrifice for my sandwich because this thing was ENORMOUS! After eating a fair amount of her salad, Christina had a piece of strawberry cheesecake and, in addition to being delicious, was big enough to feed a small family. So I helped. I don't even want to THINK about how many fat grams I've poured down my throat today, but I'm getting up in the morning and hitting Central Park again.

More High Line

As you can see here, they're actually planting some substantial greenery on the High Line, and it's pretty well utilized already. If you look at the path you can see the old rail is still in place. There is a good bit of seating along the High Line, and in some places the path broadens and has large clusters of seats and places to congregate or for vendors or, possibly, street musicians to perform. All in all it's a great use of old subway rail spaces. The third phase is ready to be started but I think there are budget constraints hindering its progress.

The High Line

This is interesting. It's called The High Line Park, and it's an old elevated railway (subway) track that's been abandoned now that the subway is truly a subterranean subway, and the old elevated tracks have been converted to green spaces. Here is where we got on, looking south from 20th St toward the first phase that was completed a year or two ago.

And in the lobby...

Out of order

This pic was on Christina's camera so it's out of order. Here we are at the foot of the Empire State Building before going up.

Lunch at Union Square Green Market

After the Empire State Building we were starving so we walked a mile down to Union Square where there's a farmer's market on Mondays and Wednesdays. There we bought a fresh baguette, some really creamy and mild goat cheese produced "locally", some apples and blackberries, and a half gallon of cold, fresh apple cider. We found a park bench, and sat and ate our lunch al fresco and watched the people coming and going. It was a very enjoyable and interesting way to catch lunch on Manhattan.

102 stories up!

For an extra $15 each we went up another 16 floors to the 102nd floor, a whopping 1250ft up! It was all enclosed and the line was long, but it was less crowded once you got there. But I don't think it was as much of an experience as the 86th floor open observation deck. Still, it's WAY up there!

Did you hear the one about the bald guy on the top of the Empire State Building?

We started our day there. Big crowds, great views. Worth the wait to get to the 86th floor observation deck.

Central Park

This morning I went for a four mile run in Central Park. I must say, I was surprised, and favorably impressed with Central Park. It is much prettier than I imagined it would be, and was being heavily utilized by runners, walkers, cyclists and pet owners by 6am. This pic is looking northeast over the Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis Reservoir at the north end of the park. It was an enjoyable run, a great way to start what will be a very busy day!

Les bombardiers

After riding the ferry back from Governor's Island we were both starving. After all, it was time for dinner and the hot dogs we bought from the cart at the ferry terminal were hours gone. So we went in search of something more substantial and, on the advice of my friend Rachel who lives in Manhatten, we went to S'Mac for some gourmet mac and cheese. It was pretty good stuff- I had Mediterranean M&C (goat cheese, sauteed spinach, kalamata olives and garlic), and Christina had buffalo chicken M&C (she didn't think about it being spicy hot, but she ate it anyway with tears welling up in her little eyes!).

By the time we were done it was bedtime for her. Unfortunately she was fast asleep when I heard the explosions as I posted these blog pictures. I looked out the window to see, way down by Battery Park, les bombardiers painting the sky with fireworks. I snapped a few pics, like the one above, but mostly I just stood at the window and enjoyed the spectacle of fireworks over the New York skyline. What a fitting end to an exciting day!

In the morning I'm going to run around Central Park before Christina wakes up. More tomorrow.

Castle Williams

No, it's not mine (I wish). This fortress stands on the northwest corner of Governor's Island, guarding the harbor where the East River merges with the Hudson to form New York Harbor off the southern end of Manhatten. Castle Williams once bristled with over 100 cannon, and was known as "the cheese box" because its round outline resembles an enormous hoop cheese sitting astride the island. It's not open to the public yet. Oh well, incentive to come back (as if I needed more).

In the far right of the picture you can see most of the bike(s) we rented. I toss in the (s) because we rented one of those deals where the kid rides on an attachment on the back of the adult's bike (can't quite see it in the pic). Talk about UNSTAAAABLE! We nearly busted it more times than I can count before we got used to it, and ended up having a great time riding, literally, all over the island.

SOL1

We made it to Governor's Island! It's a really neat place that was originally purchased from the Manhatta Indians by the Dutch for two ax heads, a string of beads and a handful of nails. Ever since it's served some military purpose given its strategic position in New York harbor. What's striking to me about it is the abundance of housing that lies completely idle right now. For years it was a Coast Guard base, but the Federal government sold it to New York for a dollar about eight years ago, and it's just been reopened to the public. There were thousands of people there today, and I anticipate the island will get developed into a residential or vacation facility.

Anyway, there's a great view of the SOL from Governor's Island, as you can see from this pic.

Staten Island Ferry

We're headed to Governor's Island for the afternoon. The ferry terminal is right next to the Staten Island Ferry terminal, so we got a good look. Hopefully we'll have a chance to ride it, but I'd really rather go to the Statue of Liberty and/or Ellis Island. We'll see.

Columbus Circle

Our hotel is just a block or two from the southwest corner of Central Park, i.e. Columbus Circle. If you look closely you can see ol' Chris standing atop his pedestal in the background.

The view from our room

On the 17th floor. From the other angle we can see the Hudson River (so far we haven't seen any bodies floating in it). I'll post a pic from that angle later.

Welcome to New York's LaGuardia Airport!

And Manhatten!

The Statue of Liberty- from 15,000 feet up!

I'm sure we'll see more of her, but this was the first time to see it for both of us.

On the plane

This is the first time we've flown together since I moved back from Texas- in 2005! We're always in the airport together, but it's always for pickups and dropoffs.

At the airport

Here we are, Christina and I, about to leave for the Big Apple! We'll be in New York from Sunday until Wednesday. We plan to do lots of touristy stuff, but the highlight will be seeing Spiderman on Broadway Tuesday night. On Wednesday we'll take the train to D.C. For another three days, the highlight of which will be the Evening Parade at the U.S. Marine Barracks at 8th and I, but of course we'll see all the monuments too. From there we'll fly back to Atlanta. So buckle your seat belts, it'll be a fast, fun ride!