5/11 &12: Playing Tourist in NYC with Nina

Our view of the Big Apple skyline as we drove into the city from Albany on May 11th:

We had returned to NYC for the third time in less than a year to see our eldest, Nina, and her fiance, Will, who moved to Brooklyn from Denver last fall. We are so looking forward to seeing them marry next February at the Deity event venue which was a former synagogue! Nina met us at a subway stop in Brooklyn so she could show us the venue before their big day.

They chose a perfect spot, we thought.

The small Hoyt St. Garden was an oasis of green space in the middle of the Crown Heights section of Brooklyn.

Nina suggested we walk over to the Brooklyn Bridge which links the borough of Brooklyn to Manhattan.

Initially we thought we'd only walk partway across the bridge, but we ended up going the distance which was my first time doing that even though I've been to the city about ten times previously. Steven lived there for a while after graduating from Michigan in the late 60s when he thought he wanted to be an actuary.

An unforgettable symbol of NYC and the NY Harbor; when we visited the city last June on our way home from Florida, we visited Lady Liberty and Ellis Island for the first time on a ferry like the one below.

 Love locks on the bridge:

Guess people just didn't see the signs posted the length of the bridge!

A view of the new World Trade Center from the bridge; if you're ever in the city, I urge you to take a few hours to visit the National 9/11 Memorial & Museum. When we did a couple of years ago, it was of course a sobering experience reliving the horrors of that time in our country's history but worth every emotional moment.

We certainly needed to make sure we never crossed over inadvertently into the bridge's bike lane as it, too, was a very busy place to be!

Once we made it as far as Manhattan, we figured we might as well continue playing tourist and walk down Broadway toward Wall St. to see the recently installed new sculpture there. On the way, we passed City Hall:

St. Paul's Episcopalian Chapel in Lower Manhattan is the oldest surviving church building in Manhattan.

A much closer view of the WTC:

As Broadway is known as the Canyon of Heroes, every 20 feet or so for block after block after block, were inscriptions in the pavement of famous people who had visited the city or of famous events that had taken place there. I found myself constantly craning my neck backwards reading them all as they were placed for people walking north, not south like we were! I chose this photo for you, Gloria.

Trinity Episcopalian Church was another lovely church and located just a few blocks from St. Paul's. Both, I noticed, had brown bag lunch programs for the city's needy seven days a week.

I remember learning years ago that police officers, firefighters and other emergency personnel sought much needed solace in the church in the days following the 9/11 disaster as it happened so close by.

We had come to see this bronze Fearless Girl statue placed a few feet in front of the Charging Bull statue in Wall St. to celebrate International Women's Day and meant to be only up for one week. The statue is certainly not without its fiercest supporters AND detractors. Some see it as less about promoting gender equality on Wall St. than about a publicity stunt. Whatever your views are about it, we were glad to make the longish trek from Brooklyn to see it!

In for a penny, in for a pound so we continued our stroll into Battery Park, a huge green space at the base of Manhattan. 

There we saw the moving Emigrants Statue symbolizing so many who first saw their new homeland at nearby Ellis Island.

The orange Staten Island ferry and the white Ellis Island ferry; when we came to NYC several years ago to visit our son, Alexander, who was then living there, we played tourist and took the ferry over to Staten Island. It's funny to think that only our youngest child, Zachary, has never lived in NYC for a time. I hope we don't 'lose' him to the Big Apple, too, even though it's one of the most exciting cities in the world.

A great shot of father and daughter:

The huge Castle Clinton National Monument commanded a large area of Battery Park.

Across from Battery Park was the Park's imposing Triborough Bridge Tunnel Authority Building.

After all that walking, our tummies needed some sustenance so we took the train, i.e. the metro, to the Chelsea area of the city to one of Nina and Will's favorite places. So glad we never decided to drive in the city as the train was far more relaxing and normally quicker too.

On the way, we passed a very well dressed crowd on the red carpet for the second season premiere of Netflix's Master of None. Neither Steven nor I were aware of the show but Nina sure was.

At last, a place for us to sit down and chow down some food!

The meatballs were good but the ice cream sandwich Nina and I shared just may have been even yummier! It was the best end to a great day with Nina in her newly adopted city.

I had forgotten the mounds and mounds of garbage that end up on the city's sidewalks at the end of each day. Whatever does the city do with all that trash as the amount was just appalling?

When we packed for this trip, Steven and I never figured there'd be snow flurries in Ottawa and such chilly weather in NY. We're so looking forward to the warmer climes of the southern states in a few days!

After Steven and I drove in from Queens yesterday morning, Nina and I had a fun time getting mother-daughter mani pedis in the salon beneath her and Will's apartment in Brooklyn. I felt almost like a native New Yorker all dressed in black as that seemed to be the unofficial 'costume' all women were wearing.

So happy that Nina took the day off work so she could join us for an afternoon in Brighton Beach, the oceanside enclave at the southern tip of Brooklyn known as Little Odessa. 

Steven and I had wanted to visit the Russian neighborhood by Coney Island well before traveling through much of that country in 2013 and having Nina with us made it even more special.

Even the USPS branch made me feel like we were back in Russia with all the Cyrillic writing. 

Brighton Beach Ave. thronged with people shopping at produce markets, ethnic shops selling Russian pastries and mom and pop corner stores known as 'bodegas' in NY. Being there was a welcome feast to our senses.

We couldn't come to Brighton Beach without walking along the boardwalk! Nina wisely said later we should have taken public transportation down to Brighton Beach as battling traffic there and back took up so much time.

My favorite photo of Brighton Beach:

Fun walking through the Off Broadway theater district in the Hell's Kitchen area of NYC a few hours later:

 The newly engaged Nina and Will at dinner!

Before saying good bye to Nina and Will, we capped off our wonderful day together with a NY specialty: a shared donut ice cream sandwich.

Next up: Dover and Rehoboth Beach, Delaware or as one cute t-shirt said, Dela-where?!

Posted from Rehoboth Beach on May 13th, 2017.