New York sightseeing bus tour

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bus tours, New York, postaday2016, sightseeing

My friends Claudine, Marc and I spent the day doing the downtown loop by way of the New York City sightseeing bus tour. I had never done it before and I am now a fan. Claudine and Marc enjoyed it tremendously as well, we did have a slight hiccup, but it didn’t take anything away from the overall enjoyment of the day. The great thing about these bus tours is the idea that you can hop on and hop off, so we hopped off at the Flat Iron District and when we tried to hop back on at Union Square, unfortunately the guide book directed us to the wrong street, we missed two buses, but the important thing was that we figured it out eventually, lol. We bravely decided to do it again, this time at the South Street Seaport, this time we found the bus so we hopped back on without a hitch, we really liked the Seaport, it’s still being worked on, but there is a lot to see and the history is simply fascinating, an important part of New York’s formative years.

Sightseeing with dear friends

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New York, postaday2016, sightseeing

Today I spent a glorious day with my dear friends Claudine and Marc, friends of my amazing cousin Francoise, who are spending this week in New York. We walked along the high line with my mother, who joined us mid afternoon, and before that we had walked down Avenue of the Americas and these are some pictures of our walkabout.

Union Square Park

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New York, postaday2016

We took my aunt to Union Square Park to show her how lovely our city park system is, small islands of nature in the sea of concrete and asphalt that constitutes this great city.

Walking through the park, I was reminded that we have our own statue of Abraham Lincoln right here in New York, I used to know the history of the statue, but it has been too long since I read about it. My aunt was happy to see Abraham Lincoln’s statue, she is very aware of his historical importance.

Today was a glorious day in the city and we had a very lovely time together.

Looking up

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New York, postaday2016

I love walking down whatever avenue I find myself on and looking up the side streets because you never know what gems you might discover.

I posted two of the same picture because I cannot pick which is better, I was looking at the shadows, wondering over the inclusion of greenery and vacillating between which captured my vision best. So I gave up deciding. These captures were made as I was walking from the East side over to the Westside in the twenties, it was still a nice day even with the hotter temperatures because a nice breeze was blowing down the avenues. New York is a treasure trove of photographic subjects, all you need to do is look, personally my favorite way to look is to look up.

It was Africa hot in New York

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heat, New York, postaday2016

The Northeast is experiencing a few days of intense heat and humidity, technically it isn’t called a heat wave until a certain number of days of at least 90 degrees pass, if tomorrow registers 90 then it will be official, New York has its first heat wave. We weren’t the only ones suffering from the heat, the dogs were pretty pooped by the heat, thank goodness my mother not only had an oscillating fan that we aimed at the dogs, but also a box fan that we positioned opposite the oscillating fan to create a cross breeze. It worked pretty well, after every walk, the minute we entered the house, the tired dog would search for the fan and plunk himself or herself in front of it.

The heat got to my mother and myself, ordinarily we enjoy going into the city to walk from neighborhood to neighborhood, but with temperatures in the 90’s we kept our walking to a minimum, ducking into stores to take advantage of the air conditioning so we could cool off. That was on Wednesday, the other days we stayed at home in the cool, at least I had the cool to come back to after the numerous walks I took the dogs on, I wasn’t able to walk them as a group so I walked them individually, I walked a lot.

I love my backyard!

Union Square and its environs

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New York, postaday2016

Today the ice cream trucks were out in force everywhere we walked, with the heat today, I wasn’t surprised to see several people waiting on line at each truck we passed. Where we had beautiful breezes Monday and Tuesday, today the air just sat still while the sun shone down without a serious cloud in the sky.
My mother mentioned how busy the streets were despite it being mid afternoon, I didn’t think anything of it because I can’t remember a time where New York streets weren’t busy with people, no matter the time of day or day of the week. If you ever have the chance to look down onto the streets of New York from up high, you’ll notice how similar the people are to hordes of ants crawling in straight lines. New York is one of the busiest and liveliest cities in the world in my opinion.

New Yorkers milling about

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New York, postaday2016

My mother and I happened upon Lincoln Center, such a beautiful cultural center, each time I walk past it, I say to myself “We need to purchase tickets to a ballet or an opera” and then I continue on my merry way and the thought then gets lost in the crazy day to day living, when I fancifully think about attending a cultural event, I am sincere in that moment, it’s daily life that gets in the way.

I love watching New Yorkers scurrying about, intent on getting to point A or B or C depending on where they started lol. You could write reams of fiction just by sitting and observing everyone in their own bubble, hurrying to who knows where and who knows why, those reasons can be made up by the observer without any displacement whatsoever, feeding their imagination with the energy generated by strangers’ frenetic pace.

What’s funny is that while I am commenting on these New Yorkers in the pictures, I was part of the tapestry as soon as I put my cellphone back in my bag. My mother and I contributed to the frenetic pace ourselves, I wonder what an observer might have gleaned from our speedy walking lol.

I can’t stop taking pictures of the Freedom Tower!

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freedom tower, New York, postaday2016

I can’t stop taking pictures of the Freedom tower, it is so majestic, elegant and sleek. Its facade lends to dynamic photos, what with the reflective panels giving space if you will to the sky and the clouds. I also had the opportunity to visit the infinity pools at the North and South and I tried to capture the calm and peacefulness of the place.

The surroundings buildings provide such a beautiful backdrop to the meditation pools.

Views of downtown Manhattan

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financial district, New York, postaday2016

My husband and I are back in New York, we decided to stay in the city and this time all the way downtown, near the Wall Street area. What’s funny is that despite the fact that I grew up in New York, living in Astoria, I am as much a tourist when it comes to the financial district, as any other of the million tourists that visit every year. Downtown Manhattan is not like the rest of the city, it isn’t on a perpendicular grid, the streets meander and weave in and out without much sense so you can get lost quite easily or at least I think so, I made sure to get a map of the area from the hotel before I ventured out. I do like how everything is smushed together, it makes for interesting pictures with skyscrapers erupting out of the ground alongside historic monuments from revolutionary days. This area is wonderful when it comes to giving you a true sense of history, much more than all the other neighborhoods in the city. 

Fog can’t hide beauty

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New York, postaday2016

I took this on the bus ride home, you can’t hide New York’s beauty, it cuts through the fog like a knife cuts through butter. We had just emerged from the Lincoln Tunnel into New Jersey, a weird way to get to Springfield MA but I wasn’t driving, and I loved the drama the fog added to the New York City skyline so I took the picture. I took at least a dozen and this is the only one that came out, the others were grey blobs or parts of trucks or splotches of rain drops blocking the view. 

New York is just a magnificent looking city.