Wednesday in New York

Wednesday was another beautiful sunny day in New York.


We went to a bagel place for breakfast.


(Real New York pizza?  Check.  New York cheesecake?  Check.  New York bagel?  Check.  New York hot dog?  ...Can live without.)


We ate outside at the little sidewalk cafe, enjoying the pleasant morning air, the busy bustle going by, the humongous construction crane working across the way... and the jackhammer 12 feet behind us.


Conversation was at a minimum, and with ringing ears, we found a subway stop to take us to Brooklyn.  One of the things at the top of my wish list in New York was to walk over the Brooklyn Bridge.


Unfortunately, but the time we got there, I was in dire need of a ladies' room.  Google told me that yes, there are public restrooms "near" the Brooklyn Bridge, but in NYC, "near" is a relative term.  Everything is oversized.


So after we walked under the bridge to the conveniently located public restrooms, we walked three quarters of a mile back to find the actual end of the bridge where we could get on.


The bridge itself is a little over a mile long.  I'm pretty sure there were a little over a million people on it with us, too.  But it was beautiful and so worth the walk.

One World Trade Center toward the left

Eeny Statue of Liberty

It has a nifty dedicated pedestrian/bike path too, completely separated from car traffic.

It being 84 degrees with bright sunshine, we were sweating well enough, and my New York bagel was all the way down to my toes by the time we got back across to Manhattan.


Enter the cleverly opportunistic sellers of freshly sliced mango at the end of the bridge.  Ah!  How did they know?


(I was impressed all week with the informal city vendors' opportunism.  Long line for a bus on a hot sidewalk?  Ice-cold bottled water suddenly for sale!  Thirsty after a scenic bridge walk, right before lunch?  Mangoes!  Change in weather brings rain?  Umbrellas for sale on every corner.)


Knowing we would be foot-weary after the bridge, we had planned on a little tour/cruise of New York Harbor afterwards.  We zig-zagged our way through the streets to Pier 15 and boarded a tour boat.


Note that by this time we had walked upwards of 2 1/2 miles in the hot sun on naught but a bagel and mangoes, rubbing shoulders with every tourist in Brooklyn.

Every other passenger on the boat crowded on the top deck for the best views.  We found the lowest level thankfully deserted.  We were very pleased indeed to enjoy the subpar views all alone on the lower deck.

Also Jason cheered up significantly when I bought him a gin and tonic.

The tour itself was lovely.  

We enjoyed views of the skyline.

This perspective gives a better sense of the relative size of One World Trade Center.

We saw Ellis Island.

And, of course, the Statue of Liberty--which is not on Ellis Island.

So very handsome!

We also had fine views of Jersey City, Brooklyn, Governors Island, and the Brooklyn and Manhattan Bridges.

And Jason: my favorite view of them all.

By now my bagel and my mangoes were down to my toes, and I was seriously exhausted.  Jason took charge and steered me through the streets to a subway station.  It was midafternoon as we walked through lower Manhattan, and through the haze of fatigue I did marvel at the children we passed (what are children doing in the New York Financial District?)...and how relaxed their grown-ups were about keeping them close.  Street after street of parents letting their kids skip along beyond their arm's reach says a lot about a city.

When the subway deposited us near our hotel, we first visited the same bakery we had enjoyed the day before, for a poppyseed danish, and then collapsed in our room for a little while.  

After some recovery time we got dressed up and went around the corner to a Mexican restaurant.  We had their world-famous guacamole and pomegranate margaritas and enchiladas.  

Over dinner we discussed how--despite the frequent honking--Manhattan feels like a perfectly safe place to walk after dark, which is rather surprising for a big city.  

We took advantage of this after dinner and strolled down Broadway to Columbus Circle, which is where mileage to and from New York City is calculated.  There's a lovely fountain inside the roundabout and a hoity-toity mall there.  

We wandered inside and immediately came upon a pair of striking and very nude twelve-foot-tall statues.  The woman ("Eve"), whom we saw first, shocked us with her cartoonish nudity, but when we found "Adam," her counterpart, we pretty much dissolved into giggles.  

Not only are his genitals improbably tiny and distinct, and eye-level,....but they alone are shiny, from the countless touches of those who just couldn't resist.  We spent more time than I'll admit here on the second-level balcony above the statue, watching people walk by, to see who would do a double-take or a photo op.  Kids were the best.  Boys, especially, of a certain age, have no inhibitions and would run straight over and point and yell. 

 One article I found says that the statue, "seems to bring out the snickering puerility in everyone."  Well put.  And the whole article is worth reading.  Plus it has a picture there, which I was too embarrassed to take myself.

After at least partially recovering from our immature hilarity, we marveled for a while at the glitz of the Shops before we walked back to the Lincoln Center to sit mesmerized at the fountain there.

By now we were ready for dessert, so we changed back into sneakers and set out again into the night, for a shop that advertised donut ice cream sandwiches.  As in, slice a donut like a bagel, and put 4 scoops of ice cream in between.  

I went for a hot fudge sundae.  

Finally we trekked back to our hotel and put our feet up to watch the presidential debate, just to finish a long, fun day with one more dose of absurdity.