Visit Dates: March 1-3, 2019
On Friday March 1 our little expedition group split up. Carla and I headed to MoMA (Metropolitan Museum of Modern Art) while Nancy and Linda went to the 9/11 Memorial. Carla and I visited the memorial during our 2016 trip. The 9/11 Memorial is a must stop if you haven’t been there. But prepare to be overwhelmed with grief.
Carla and I spent a couple of hours on the 5th floor of MoMA. This part of the collection highlights the 1880s to the 1950s. It is where the heavy hitters are displayed – Van Gogh, Monet, Dali, Renoir, Rothko, Mondrian. As we walked through the galleries we were walking through time which helped me make sense of the changes in art. Early in the period the paintings are representational. As time passes the images become more abstract. Monet’s water lilies become more about the colors than the landscape. And then you get to Mondrian with his squares of colors and Rothko whose work at first just seems like a black canvas. Then as you study it you see the interaction of the slight shades of color. I’m no art critic – obviously; maybe I have it all wrong. If you go, avail yourself of one of the free headsets so you can hear details about the pictures.
We had a great lunch in the museum cafe. I had salmon sliders and we shared an artichoke dip with locally made potato chips. We sure ate well on our trip.
We headed back to the apartment to rest up for a busy evening; Nancy and Linda shopped around lower Manhattan. That evening we celebrated Kevin’s birthday at Momofuko Noodle bar in Manhattan. Friday night in New York City is a blast – so much going on and young people everywhere seeing and being seen. We had reservations for 8:00 but it was pretty obvious that was going to be a challenge. Kev put our names in and then we headed a few blocks away where the six of us could drink and visit. Finally we headed back to the noodle bar where Kevin pleaded with the hostess that he had some “olds” in tow. She took pity on us and we had a great dinner: most of us had the Ramen. I also had an alcohol slurpy drink. Yum. We were the oldest people there – and not just by a little bit. I think the next oldest people in the restaurant were in their 30s. Hanging with Kev and Nat we saw a side of New York we’d have otherwise missed.
After we made it back to our apartment Kevin and Natalie went back out to celebrate in earnest – having fun until 4 the next morning. Ah, New York.
Saturday morning was restful; we watched the snow come down and were visited by Linda’s son-in-law’s, brother’s family (got that?). They live in greater Brooklyn and it was fun seeing them. After a delicious Thai lunch we had delivered they went back home and we headed out to the Brooklyn Bridge Park. We stumbled across a model and her photographer.
The Brooklyn side tower is right on the bank of the East River and looms over the neighborhood.
We hung around the park a bit taking pictures like everyone else.
Most of these pictures were taken with my Sony RX100M6 pocket camera. I’m really pleased with the pictures I get from such a small camera. One of its weaknesses – or maybe on of my weaknesses – is taking pictures of architecture. When the camera is tilted up a bit to capture the skyscrapers the perspective gets very wonky. Vertical and horizontal lines curve. I had to do quite a bit of work in Lightroom to get things right. And it is still off a bit. If you look at the Brooklyn Bridge tower you’ll see the top isn’t level and the openings are skewed a bit. Regardless, it’s a great camera for travel.
Carla and I posed as well.
As we hung around the park waiting for Nancy to rejoin us – she had spent the day with a friend – Linda, Carla, and I looked at the bridge and said, “you know, it’s right there…”. Well, it IS right there but it is so high, we had to walk back east quite a few blocks to get up to the walkway. It was a cold day but crowded nonetheless.
The bridge was way more crowded that it was almost a decade ago when we did this walk. Back then bicycles went zooming by in their lanes. On this day, walkers dominated the dojo. I saw 2 people on bicycles – well, walking beside their bikes. We didn’t walk all the way to Manhattan, just around the Manhattan side tower. This is a second “must do” activity in New York. If you can manage walking across the bridge toward Manhattan as the sun sets, you’ll be glad you did.
Most of our party hung out in a bar near the park but I wanted to capture the Manhattan skyline as the winter sun set.
You need a panorama to really get a feel for the view. Click for a larger image.
One World Trade Center dominates the skyline.
Another composite of the Manhattan skyline in the late winter afternoon sun.
As the sun went down the skyline lit up and the Empire State Building – I think – shouldered above the skyline.
We joined up with the crew – who were smart enough to stay out of the cold. I hope you – and Nat and Kev – forgive me for the extra picture of them. They are thriving on their lives’ adventures.
We had to take a different subway back to Brooklyn because the L train is shut down on the weekends. This is an improvement over the original plan to shut it down for over a year while they make improvements. We picked up some New York pizzas and took them to the apartment for dinner.
Sunday March 3 was our departure day; but our flights didn’t leave until early evening so we spent some time in Williamsburg.
On our meandering we saw a Shake Shack. It’s not cool and hip but we don’t have them in Oregon and I’ve been wanting to try lunch at one.
It was delicious. Don’t tell anyone but I like In n’ Out better.
Another large late winter storm was working its way toward us. We started the afternoon walking without our jackets on. But over a period of just 5 to 10 minutes it got noticeably colder. Kevin had a meeting with a record label in Philadelphia Sunday night so he headed out. The rest of us returned to our apartment, packed, and caught a Lyft back to the Newark airport. We were hoping to beat the storm out of town. It started to spit snow as we arrived at the airport and the plane had to be de-iced before we took off.
We did a lot in our 5 days in New York. If I had planned these posts better I would have had more, shorter posts. Thanks for staying with me.
