My Most Recent Slice of the Big Apple: Part One

Okay, here's the breakdown of my relaxing yet active weekend in New York:

Friday

I took the train up, I don't enjoy driving in cities or on really packed multi-lane highways, so the nearly $100 roundtrip cost was worth it to me to avoid the stress, tolls, gas prices, etc. I knit most of the trip up on my sock and was pleased with the progress I made. I also did a bit of writing, but nothing major (morning pages).

My sister met me at Penn Station and we commenced to walk. We could have used the metro more than we did, but it was the absolute perfect day to be out walking, so we spent little time underground.

We meandered from Penn Station to Central Park, and ended up using an entrance she hadn't used before, which took us past the Central Park zoo and under the Delacorte Clock. We saw it strike the half hour, but were gone before it struck noon. We also hit the toy boat pond and the lake, where we looked for, and found, several species of sunbathing turtles. We also decided that the color of the lake water that day would look great on the wall of a room.

After spending quite a while walking and sitting in the park, we found the nearest metro stop and took a short train ride to Union Square and its farmers' market, where we got some of the most delicious oatmeal raisin cookies I have ever had the pleasure to eat. Union Square was just a few blocks from Knit New York, so, of course, I had to find it. I did, after almost walking right past it. It is cute and tiny. We sat and had something to drink and petted many yarns. My sister absolutely does not "get" the whole knitting thing, (Later in the weekend she told her husband that knitters have their own little sub-culture -- she's right) but she was very patient with my desire to wander back and forth in the shop petting yarn and trying to decide whether to buy anything.

I bought four hanks of fingering weight merino, two in raspberry, two in pumpkin, and a very fine crochet hook to keep in my sock kit because I dropped a stitch on the train and had a terrible time picking it up. They are currently offering "golden tickets hidden in their stock, but I wasn't planning to buy enough to really end up in the running. Someone had won one a few days before, though, and came back to claim it while we were there. She was so excited, and everyone in the shop, customer or employee, was happy for her; it was worth $150 in store credit!

After I finished fondling yarn, we went back to Union Square and took an even shorter train ride further downtown. I enjoyed looking at the various mosaics as we passed through different stations, whimsy is good. We wandered around fairly aimlessly for a while, walked blocks and blocks through an Italian festival and cringed at the piles of deepfried Oreos at every third stand. One had Oreos and Twinkies, ugh! She bought some expensive little cannoli (we discovered later that they were pretty tasty, though), then we veered away from the festival, even though it continued on still for blocks and blocks. We came out in the financial district down by the courthouse where this is installed. I read about it here a while ago, but had no idea I'd actually see it.

We didn't get very close to it, because we got distracted by a young couple who had obviously JUST gotten engaged. They were so sweet, they came out from between two buildings and she looked down at her hand. They stopped in the middle of the sidewalk and her hugged her and kissed the top of her head. We couldn't stop smiling for them, and every time we looked back they were still there, completely wrapped up in one another in a very sweet and romantic way. I wish them all the best and all the happiness, whoever they may be.

By this time we had already walked our feet off, and were thinking about looking for a metro stop again to possibly head toward Brooklyn. But what's between lower Manhattan and Brooklyn? That's right. The Brooklyn Bridge. I innocently mentioned that I had never actually seen the Brooklyn Bridge in person. Anyone want to venture a guess as to what happened next?

If you guessed we walked across the Brooklyn Bridge and didn't sit on a single one of those conveniently located park benches while doing it, you would be correct. It was great. I took a few photos, we stopped to look at a boat of some sort under full sail and at the other bridges and all of the real estate apparently owned by a religious organization. She told me, but I can't remember, Christians of some stripe, I'm nearly positive. There were lots of other people on the bridge taking photos and sitting on benches. By the time we got to Brooklyn and stopped to find the nearest metro stop on the conveniently located map we were definitely feeling our walk.

Bear in mind that I was carrying my bag containing everything I had packed for the weekend. I had expected to carry it, so I had packed relatively light, but it felt anything but. We found a metro stop five or six blocks away and headed for it. We bypassed it slightly to walk to a grocery on a trendy little street (in what we later determined to be Brooklyn Heights) to get odds and ends for dinner and breakfast. We limped back to the metro stop and sat on a train for half an hour, then walked the three or so blocks to her apartment building.

We wrapped up the day with appetizers of bread, Brie, and hummus, followed by fresh mozzarella pizza (delivered), and more conversation (did I mentioned we talked a LOT as we took Manhattan by storm?). She showed me the harbor view featuring the Statue of Liberty and lower Manhattan out their bedroom window (stick head out window, look right), then we settled in for the evening.

Okay, if you're still with me, congratulations and thank you. I didn't expect it to be this long, so I think I'll save days two and three for other entries. (Told you I had fun!)