Empire State Mind

My trip to NYC with my mom and sister was very memorable.  I had so many amazing experiences that I still haven't shared on the good ole bloggy blog.  I honestly don't know if I could possibly do that, so I've decided to do one more post with an overview of some of the things I haven't posted yet.  And then one more post after that with some stuff about Hurricane Irene and how we weathered that.

This was my first trip to NYC ever.  I was super excited to see Manhattan and Brooklyn as we descended to land.  Seeing the Statue of Liberty and The Empire State Building as the sun was setting was a thrill.  It made me giddy and I tried to not act like an idiot on the plane.

Sorry the picture is hazy.  I had to take it through an airplane window, flying through the air, into the setting sun.  I did the best I could.

 

After landing, I gathered my luggage and for the first time ever, took a taxi to our Brooklyn Apartment.  

 

Mom and Kylie were out front of the building to wave the taxi driver down.  Kylie and I had to pose in our hallway on the 6th floor for a picture.

Mom and Kylie had been there for a few days before to get Kylie set up at art school in Brooklyn.  They hadn't gone into Manhattan at all without me.  Wasn't that so thoughtful?  After I was slightly settled, we took off for Times Square!  How exciting!

We saw a cross dresser in the Times Square Sephora.  This is the best shot I could get of him/her.  I took it over my shoulder and he/she had moved.  So there on the far right of my picture is a froufrou red dress and curly blonde hair.  I gotta say, this was really fun to see.  Though we all felt he could've done a better job.  For starts - he could have shaved his legs and put on some red heels to match that dress.  In other words, if you're gonna go for it, go all the way!

The next morning we were really excited to explore Manhattan!  

Here we are waiting for the Subway in Brooklyn.

After finding where Kylie's Manhattan classes were located, we started to wander, and ended up shopping on 5th Ave.  So fun!

In the afternoon we spent good money on a double decker tour bus.  It was totally worth it!  We saw so much, and learned so much, and got to see and understand the layout of Manhattan.  I highly recommend doing this on a first trip to NYC!

On the tour bus.

Things we saw on the tour - 

 In Greenwich Village - Bleeker St.(by Simon & Garfunkel.)

 A look down Wall St.

 

A crazy Kylie.

 One thing I couldn't get over, was the canyon like streets.  All the buildings were so tall that being down on the street was like being in a literal canyon.  Now I know what The Mama's & The Papa's meant by "Young girls are coming to the Canyon....."

Underneath the Brooklyn Bridge.

After the tour we grabbed some dinner at this fun little diner.  Mom and Kylie had some yummy NY pizza.  I had a sandwich called "The Manhattan" - a turkey with BLT- delicious! 

After eating we raced to the Empire State Building.  We really wanted to watch the sunset from the top.  Well, the security and wait was way more extensive than the airport.  It took us a while to get up there.  We kind of missed the sunset.  Ooops....  Oh well.  I still really loved being up there and seeing the city at night.

 

Central Park

 I LOVE Central Park!  I could spend a whole week just going to Central Park every day and hanging out. 

Mom, Kylie and I on Belvedere Castle looking over Turtle Pond, The Great Lawn and the outdoor Delacorte Theater.

   Some of my favorite places in Central Park were Belvedere Castle and Turtle Pond.  They are right next to each other.  They border on the east side of the outdoor Shakespeare theater.  If we had gone earlier in the Summer we could have seen some awesome outdoor Shakespeare. 

The Great Lawn used to be 'The Great Reservoir.'  In 1937 they filled the reservoir in with land.  All that was left was the small pond at the south end.  It was known as Belvedere Lake in the beginning, but now is Turtle pond. 

I bought an app for my iPhone soon after arriving in NYC for Central Park.  It is the coolest app!  First of all it has GPS with a little blue dot automatically placed on the map when you step into the park.  We could wander aimlessly without ever getting lost!  The other really awesome thing was, as we ran into awesome things and places all I had to do was look at the app, click on where we were and read about what we were looking at.  

Mom and Kylie had fun making fun of me and my app ..... until I read them this fun info I found about Turtle Pond.  After that they were the ones making me get the phone out to tell them stuff.

Here are some fun facts about Turtle pond. - It is the newest body of water in the park. (1937)

- It is filled with NYC drinking water, but don't drink the water!

- 5 different kinds of turtles live in the pond, and there are thousands, making them easy to spot.

- Most the turtles came from NYC apartments, dropped off by their owners, when they outgrew their urban accommodations.  But don't bring down your pet turtle, they have plenty living there now!

Notice above, myself sitting on the "Whisper Bench."  It's real name is the Charles B. Stover Bench.  It is made from 20 ft. of curved granite.  Supposedly a whisper travels well from one end to the next.  It was dedicated and named in 1936 after the NYC parks commissioner.  

Belvedere Castle was designed and built by one of Central Park's original co-designer's.  It was built in 1869 and was a 'Victorian Folly.'  It was originally used as a lookout to the Reservoir to the north (now the Great Lawn.)  Also, in the early days, it was great for bird and insect watching.  

In 1919 it was fitted with equipment to record weather.  On local news forecasts it is often heard, 

"Today the weather in Central Park is...."  Well, Belvedere Castle is where they the get the info from.  

You can see the highest and furthest view of the park and surrounding city from the castle, which is how it got it's name.  In Italian Belvedere means "Beautiful View."

Looking down into the Delacorte outdoor Theater, where "Shakespeare in the Park" is held every Summer.

Romeo and Juliet, one of two beautiful sculptures out front of the Delacorte Theater.

There are 9,000 benches in Central Park, and 36 arches and bridges.  While there are obviously thousands more benches, we still ran into many of the bridges and arches.  I really loved this arch just south of the Met under the East Drive.  It is the Greywacke arch, and was completed in 1862.  The arch itself was beautiful, but was even more beautiful because as we walked through it a street performer was playing his violin.

As we were exiting the park we happened upon this amazing site!  Mom and Kylie made me pull out the phone so we could know what it was!  It was located right behind the Met and looked like something that should be in the museum, not outside of it.  We were right!  

This is the Obelisk, or "Cleopatra's Needle."  It is the oldest man made object in the park.  Twin Obelisks were constructed on the banks of the Nile in 1500 BC.  They were commissioned by Heliopolis to commemorate the Pharaoh's 30 years of reign.  In 1879 one of the Obelisks was moved to London.  In 1881 this one was placed in Central Park with a time capsule underneath it.  They were sold to help fund modernization of Egypt.

There were many more amazing facts about this Obelisk, but I don't want to bore all of you.  I am really interested in finding a book about the twin Obelisks.  If not, Kylie thought of a really good premise for a great historical fiction book about the Obelisks, and the Londoner and New Yorker who bought them, what was put into the time capsules etc.

The Metropolitan Museum of Art

My absolute favorite parts of NYC were Central Park and the Met.  I have been going back and forth over which one I loved more.  Of course, I didn't even come close to seeing all of either one, so maybe some day after I see all of both, I will have a better idea as to whether I love the Met or Central Park more.  

As for now, I think the Met is slightly ahead.  I was actually brought to tears with the overwhelming beauty around me inside the Met.  It was an incredible experience to see these amazing works of art in REAL life.  I am so grateful for my time spent in the Met. 

Here are some highlights - 

 The building itself is a work of art.  It was an experience just to walk through the halls and galleries, then you add the art to it and the whole experience becomes beautifully overwhelming!

 Walking down the grand central staircase.

 Mom and I loved this beautiful painting of Joan of Arc.  Her eyes were so clear and beautiful!

I took some pictures to show how the galleries went on and on from one to the next, with no halls.  It was a huge maze of rooms, and we never knew what we would see when we walked into the next room.  It was very thrilling.

We purposely didn't look at the map or plan out what we would see.  We just wanted to wander and enjoy our short time.  You can imagine how thrilling it was to run into some Van Gogh's, Renoir's, Klimt's, Degas' etc.  It was all so very exciting!

Mom and I in front of some of Van Gogh's flowers.

I took this close up of Van Gogh's Sunflowers to try to show the amazing paint and strokes left on the canvas.  Everything had movement.

Mom and Kylie on the steps of the Met.  It was fun to sit and relax after a long day.  It was a prime people watching spot.

All By Myself...

Today was a gorgeous New York day, especially compared to yesterday! The Mayor of NYC issued an evacuation order today and all of transit - Subways, buses, airports etc will be shut down by noon tomorrow.  The mayor warned New Yorkers (I guess that includes us for this week only) not to be deceived by the gorgeous weather.  So today was the "calm before the storm."  I've seen it before.  I grew up out here on the East coast, and I have seen some hurricanes and tropical storms before.  I recognize this "calm." 

I wanted to take full advantage of the sunshine and calm before getting stuck in the apartment for days.  This afternoon mom and Kylie felt too warn out to do anything else but relax.  There was some sadness on my part because I really wanted to do more.  I sat around for a bit feeling a bit bummed out till I realized, I am a grown woman and I am perfectly capable of sightseeing around NYC on my own! 

So I took the Subway to the north end of Central Park, which borders Harlem.  It was AWESOME to see it.  I am so glad I did it.  I tried making my way down through the park to the MET, but I just didn't get far enough before dark.  So I hopped on a subway to get home.  On the way home they were already shutting down trains, and eliminating stops on my route.  Thankfully, none of the changes affected me getting home tonight.

Mom and Kylie are off at Target getting some Emergency Supplies.  Hopefully they make it back home on the subway without any hiccups.

Here are some pictures from my venture out alone.

A cool looking church, near the corner of Malcolm X Blvd. and Central Park North.

A chess game goin' on in Harlem.

This body of water at the north end of the park is called "Harlem Meer."

A dad teaching his son how to fish.  Catch and release fishing is allowed here.  Many people around had their fishing poles out.

I saw tons of runners and dog walkers.  The huge rock formation you see there behind the runner is part of the Harlem Bluff.  Before the park even existed, George Washington used the bluffs here as a base for fortifications that were built up from here all the way to the Hudson, during the Revolutionary War.  They were taken down, but quickly built back up for the War of 1812.

Myself at Harlem Meer.

Looking back towards Harlem.  The really cool looking building on the edge of the water with the willow tree is the 'fishing center.'  You can borrow fishing poles from there, or just use the bathroom.  I thought it was a gorgeous building, perfectly situated.

The main reason I came down from the north end of the park was because I really wanted to have a peaceful walk around the conservatory garden.  I got there and ALL gates into the garden were locked!  I was really and very disappointed!  I took this one picture of the large garden through the Vanderbilt Gate.  The garden is 6 acres by itself, so you see, this is a very small bit of it.

I made my way down 5th Avenue a bit.  This end of 5th is where a lot of museums are, therefore it is called the Museum Mile.

Here is the Museum of New York.

I love museums and history and learning about the past.  I really wanted to go into this beautiful building, but just didn't have time.  Oh well, on another trip.

My favorite part was watching the sunset over the East Meadow of Central Park.  Ignore the blurry landscape, my camera was throwing fits.  But look at that beautiful sky!!!  I wish you all could've seen it in person. 

Over the next few days, with Hurricane Irene headed straight for New York, I will remember this beautiful sunset and hope for more of those soon!