Just another day in paradise: New York City, 8-23-11

This past Tuesday, the family and I went into Manhattan for the day. There, we decided to tour the city on foot and along the way hit the big places, such as Ground Zero, Wall Street, Times Square, The Highline, and Radio City Music Hall, where we saw the show Zarkana, by Cirque de Soleil. We first arrived there in the morning and parked in the upper west side and walked to a local subway station to take the Express into downtown. At the station, we met up with a friend of my mother's and her son, who are from New Jersey, and unlike us, rather informative of how subways work. Because the family and I are from Connecticut, the word subway means a place to get lunch. Boy were we in for a surprise when we got to New York and that just wasn't the case....

We had some real difficulty getting into the subway. Our New Jersey friends, who frequently visit the city, had no difficulty in accessing the underground transit, and all they could do was laugh from the other side of the turnstile as we floundered with the faulty ticket machines and made everyone else late for work. I had never heard the phrase, "Please dip your card" until that day, and I was just as confused as the rest of my family when we were asked by the ticket machine to do that. But eventually, after 20 minutes of fussing, we finally made it to the Express and were on our way to downtown. We arrived at Wall Street.

The New York Stock Exchange

We made our way from Wall Street to Ground Zero, where we saw the progress that was being made ten years after 9-11. It was impressive to see how well this city was able to pick up the pieces and redevelop the sacred ground. Construction of the Freedom Tower is in full swing, and the grounds and surrounding buildings are being built as well.

Freedom Tower being built

The 9/11 Memorial

The Winter Gardens at the World Financial Center

I was able to catch the last five minutes of a tour that was being conducted at the World Financial Center where the guide was retelling her story about what she did on that day. Her husband was a police officer who was badly injured from the attack. Side note: Here's something she said:

"About a year later, the doctor told me that I had about six months left to live. People wanted me to be angry, to be mad, but I wasn't. I was happy. I was happy because I was given the gift of time. I knew that I had six more months, and I was happy. But here I am today, giving this tour."

After visiting Ground Zero, we decided to get lunch....at a rather bizarre place: Dakota's BBQ . Quite an obscure place to eat lunch, I must say. While there, some members of our party claimed to have felt someone shaking the table, but after concluding that such a thing could not have happened, they thought nothing of it. That is, until we left and went outside to see the entire city of New York flooding the streets with fire engines and ambulances racing around street corners. As it turns out, the earthquake had just struck, and had rocked some of the buildings in downtown. Every hi-rise was evacuated, and everyone was in the street trying to make a phone call and to find out for themselves because of the incredulity of an earthquake occurring on the east coast. The city must have been pretty scared when that happened, especially being it almost 10 years after 9/11. But, after the slight disturbance in the tectonic plates, we mushed on to the Highline.

On the way there, we passed Magnolia's Bakery, but of course didn't wait on line to get anything there. Also on the way there along Bleeker Street, we passed an ice cream truck parked in front of a playground that was playing an irritating jingle. But, we got to the architectural wonder that is the Highline. For those of who that don't know, the Highline is a renovated elevated rail line that has been re-utilized as an urban garden located high above the streets of the old Meet Packing district of Manhattan. Of course, there's no more meet packing industry there, so the elevated line just sat there to rot away, until a private founder decided to pour some money into it and turn it into what is now a beautiful green oasis in the urban jungle. Whomever's idea it was, they are a genius. The city then picked up on the idea and the renovation quickly exploded into a full-blown urban renewal of the area. Dilapidated brick mid-rises have given way to modern hi-rises. The railway at once split right through old buildings that have now been converted into apartments with a view of the greenery. The Highline is an architectural masterpiece that is leading the way in re-utilization of abandoned eyesores in cities across the world.

The Highline runs right underneath this residential building. To which I had to ask, which came first, the rail or the building?

A bridge between two buildings from the highline (like that wasn't obvious)

Here's where the rail ran through an old factory.

The rails were left in tact at most locations, which was very cool, so you never forgot that you were still on an elevated rail line.

The rail clearly went right into the side of that building, but the hole has been patched and the rail replaced by greenery.

The Highline has many interesting features. It has many different seating areas scattered throughout the park. The benches were a modern design that formed out of the cement ground and provided an excellent seating area. Also, there are wooden benches that are placed on the tracks and can be moved to form different seating arrangements on the old abandoned tracks.

Remember that ice cream truck I mentioned before? Well, it followed us. All up and down the highline, it criss-crossed beneath the elevated park ringing out that same irritating jingle, and drove (me in particular) mad. There was no escaping the annoying sound of the that frozen dairy delivery van....

This is an interesting feature of the highline. These here are benches that were set up like a theater that led down to four windows that over look the street below.

In this picture, you see the interesting apartment building on the far left that recently finished construction. It has an interesting effect on the windows that make them appear blurred from the outside. To the right of that, is another (lower) apartment building. What's special about this one is, although it may be hard to see, there is a glass wall that folds up like a hangar door and opens an entire room to the outside where there is a balcony. This specific apartment is in the upper left corner of that building