New York City!

<- Manhattan from Brooklyn

We did a little touring in New York, since we arrived early and the kids were busy until the weekend. We took the train from Croton Point into Grand Central Station, about 40 miles and a fare of around $7.00 each way off peak. Riding the train was fun, an easy way to get into town and not have to worry about parking when we arrive. Once we got to Grand Central, we bought a block-by-block street atlas for Manhattan, and decided to visit Chinatown. We caught the #6 subway down to City Hall and walked over to Chinatown. The City Hall subway stop is right at the end of the Brooklyn Bridge, quite a sight.

Despite Mayor Bloomberg's best efforts, New York has a lot of litter and graffiti everywhere. It seems to me that the city is sliding back into its 1970's look, one of despair and filth. Fringes, like the warehouse district along the East River in Brooklyn, are under heavy development. Warehouses are being torn down and new condo high rises are being built. But these expensive beehives keep the dirt out in the streets, so that the dichotomy gets enlarged. The residents seem to accept the dirt as a way of life. The functional design of the city promotes it, as the canyons of sidewalks consolidate everything that flies in the breeze to street level. Everybody walks through it as if it wasn't there, but I suspect it infects their libidos.

<- Horace Greely's statue near City Hall

Chinatown was fun to look at. The community provides a shopping center for native chinese speaking people to find the goods and wares that they want and expect from their home culture, such as furniture and clothing. Since it attracts bozos like us, there are gift shops mixed in along the blocks, and street hawkers asking "You wanna buy a purse?" every 50 feet.

After Chinatown, we went our separate ways for a while. Consuelo wanted to poke around the Garment District, now called the Fashion District. I found the J&H camera store and wandered there for nearly an hour. I originally thought the store was pretty small, even though it was on 3 floors. Then I walked further down the block, and found that there were 6 or 7 store fronts for the same store, each having a specialty, one was computers, one was appliances. Actually, it was pretty large.

<- The Chrysler Building behind Grand Central

We met back at Grand Central in time to catch the 3:24 express train back to Cron-on-Hudson, which really was an express, only stopping once before our stop. We had fun and were completely worn out by the time we got home.

We spent some time with TJ, Jacqui, Luna and Porter (in another blog segment) and on the last day of our visit, we drove into Brooklyn, caught the subway to 7th Avenue, and went to see a taping of the Late SHow with David Letterman. This too was fun, though it required a lot of waiting. The Ed Sullivan theatre, where the show is taped, seats about 450. They try to fill it every night, and they get everybody together, lined up by number, in the lobby before they open the doors. Throughout this whole time, and before the show starts, everybody is trying to get the audience UP! EXCITED! Then the band comes out, plays a few songs, keep getting everybody UP! UP! Then David comes out and talks with the audience for about 2 minutes, then show time. The show goes straight through, from the announcer's opening to then end. The guests that night were Drew Barrymore, impersonator Mike MacCrae, and musical guest Ken Qweller. We had a good time, got some supper near the theater, then went back to Brooklyn for one last visit with the kids and grandkids.