NYC February 2008
As with our previous travel blogs, you can click the pictures on these pages to go to a larger version. If you are a Playboy style reader and just want to see the pictures, click here. Otherwise, here is our story.
Ana had been blessed with a project for work up in Purchase, NY, which is about 30 miles north of Manhattan. As such her airfare would already be paid for so we decided to meet up during the week and spend a few days together once she was done with her work activities. This meant I would stay with our self proclaimed favorite niece Jessica and her boy "Brooklyn Mike" for those few days.
Thursday 02.21.08:
Tampa Airport
Well, 7am flights are always the suck, but at least you can save some money parking at the economy lot and riding the shuttle over. Since Ana had taken all my baggage up previously, I just had my extra winter gear and the big Nikon came along for this trip, so the remote lot wasn't so bad.
I had breakfast at the Flatbread's joint in the airport, but it was horrible, and rather than get in a fight with someone who spoke no English at all, I decided just to settle in with a chicken biscuit from Chick-fil-A and Raspberry Mocha Latte from Starbuck's. Happily the flights were uneventful as usual with stops in Charlotte and finally in LaGuardia.
Now as I native Floridian flying to a northern city, I was aware that I needed to pack some different gear because it was going to be
COLD!!!
When I left Tampa it was 70F...When I landed in Charlotte, it was 35F, when I arrived in New York it was 25F, at NOON. Yay.
At any rate I took the M60 bus from LaGuardia over to 125th and Lexington. To say that this area has gone through a shift in demographics would be an understatement (I actually saw yuppies). At any rate, I hopped on a Brooklyn bound 4 express train and traveled down to 86th and Lexington. From here I walked about 5 blocks east to:
Carl Schurz Park, 86th and East End Ave
This great little park is built over the top of the FDR Highway, and is very similar in construction to the Brooklyn Promenade which does the same over the BQE (Brooklyn/Queens Expressway) in Brooklyn. The upper east side is very affluent, I saw the typical smattering of Bentley's, Mercedes and at least one bright red Ferrari. At any rate, this park provides its users with a great view of Queens, the Triborough bridges and Roosevelt Island.
Top row: Triborough Bridge and the lighthouse at Lighthouse
Park on Roosevelt Island
Bottom Row: Looking South over the East River at the 59th Street Bridge,
Looking west at the luxury homes on the upper east side (UES)
As you can see, it was an absolutely gorgeous day. At any rate, I walked back to the subway station at Lexington and 86th and took a 6 train down to Spring Street in Little Italy.
Lunch:
Lombardi's Pizza, corner of Spring and Mott in Little Italy.
Fantastic! Que Bella! Words that cannot describe the wonderment that is a coal fired pizza prepared by this place. Opened in 1905, it has been labeled the first pizza joint in the USA. All that experience counts, as the pizzas here are thin crust, tasty and have just the right amount of that "burnt" crust taste. I enjoyed a traditional pie, a couple of breadsticks and a glass of Chianti. It doesn't get much better than this (it might if the wait staff worked on being friendly). Their pizza's seem a bit more like a margharita pizza than what you would find at most typical pizza joints. Let us just say that if you like Pizza Hut, you should not come here, as their pies are everything that the chain restaurants aren't. Bring cash or an ATM card because they don't take checks or credit cards.
Dessert:
Ferrara's Cafe, on Grand between Mulberry and Mott.
Ok, so I am on vacation, so of course I stop at Ferrara's and pickup some rainbow cookies and a hot chocolate. Sad to say their food has really fallen off in quality the last 2 visits. Maybe its the cold weather. Who knows. From Ferrara's, I hopped back on the 6 to Brooklyn Bridge, then took the 3 train to Clark Street in Brooklyn.
The Clark Street Station is quite interesting, it is the only subway terminal I know of that can only be accessed via Elevator. And people complain about the number of stations that don't have them. Of course Brooklyn Heights is a beautiful neighborhood (and thank Patty Duke singing about it 36 years ago so everyone has heard of it) and the walk down to the promenade is gorgeous.
I got to the promenade (pronounced prom meh nod) around 5:30, so the light being cast on the surroundings was terrifc.
On to the goods:
Left, FiDi (Financial District), Right, South Street Seaport / Brooklyn Bridge
Tallest building in the left is the Woolworth Building, Lady Liberty's shadow on the right
Brooklyn Bridge on the Left (with the Empire State Building sticking out about midspan) and Federal Building middle right
From here I walked back to the train station and headed down to Jessica's. At rush hour on the train it still took about 40 minutes to get down to Bensonhurst.
I had leftover pizza and rainbow cookies for dinner and dessert and called it a day. Traveling and then walking five miles in the city tend to do this to you.