Monday, July 27, 2009

What is the deal with "weekend?" Should call it WalkEnd

Another weekend passes and soon to be another Monday. Still doesn't feel like much of a separation between weekend and weekday. I even did a bit of work this weekend! Guess I'll start with Friday. Friday I woke up around my normal time and ate a quick falafel for lunch. Then worked in the park and in my sublet until like 8:15pm! Then I attempted to meet up with a group of people that I was trying to meet in a Malaysian restaurant in Little Italy. I got there about an hour early though (I didn't know when they'd made the reservations) so I waited and waited and realized the fallacy of trying to meet up with a group of Asian Americans right next to Chinatown...


So I texted the group's leader and she never got back to me so I ended up leaving and walking back to Washington Square Park, then to grab a quick dinner at the Papaya Dog, and finally back to my sublet to watch a movie. Oh well. Better luck next time I suppose.

Saturday I walked... and walked... I started out at my sublet (3rd st) after grabbing some Kati Rolls from the official Kati Roll restaurant right around the block from my sublet. I also grabbed a delicious cookie crunch cream puff from Beard Papa's on the recommendation of a friend. I then walked up Eighth Avenue towards Times Square and walked through the sea of humanity up towards Central Park. I knew there was some sort of performance going on at the Summerstage and, heck, I just like Central Park. I got the Summerstage and didn't really dig the music (a very heavy latin band) so I just kept walking. Made my way through the ramble towards The Great Lawn. I took some pictures of it since it was a lot less people saturated than the last time I was there (for the NY Philharmonic concert).







Then I kept walking north to the huge reservoir and walked (the wrong way) towards the upper west end of it. Finally I walked towards the north meadow and relaxed there for a while. Around that time it was starting to get to be dinner time so I looked up some restaurants in the area (Upper West Side) and decided on an authentic Mexican restaurant called Noche Mexicana. It was very good and pretty cheap for the amount of food you got. Anyway, that was at 103rd st (100 blocks north of where I started). I then made the long descent down towards my sublet again. I stopped in the Columbus Circle shops and also in Times Square to think philosophical thoughts of humanity. I also grabbed a pic or two of it because I realized that I'd never actually taken a picture of Times Square. Then made the rest of my way down to 3rd st again (stopping in Union Square for a little breather), covering over 200 blocks and something like 10-11 miles of ground.








Sunday I woke up and grabbed lunch at a local sandwich type shop. It was a pretty good ribeye steak sandwich at a decent price, though must be hard to compete with the Mamoun's right next door. Anyway, I looked up what was going on in NYC today and saw that there was a free folk music concert on Governor's Island today with Judy Collins, a Grammy-award-winning singer. I didn't really know who she was or really cared for folk music, but I figured it'd be fun to check out Governor's Island so I took the N train down to Whitehall station and found the ferry bound for Governor's Island.

The decks were pretty crowded but I managed to stake out a decent spot and tried to take a pic or two of the Manhattan view during the short cruise over to the island. Once there they seemed to be setting up or taking it down or something and I just started walking (again) towards the Great Promenade. The Great Promenade is a path that goes around the island; about 2.2 miles according to the signs and has some great views of the Statue of Liberty and Manhattan/Brooklyn. I took some pictures but it was so bright and sunny that I couldn't see very well to see if I was getting good pictures.





I made my way up to Picnic Point (the point closest to the Statue of Liberty) then back down again in time to get on the 4:00pm ferry back to Manhattan. I was standing on the deck again leaning against the doorway when I heard this loud commotion and lots of applause. Apparently there was Judy Collins, taking the same ferry back to Manhattan. She came up on the deck and had to kind of eke by me to get through the doorway with her entourage, so there was one of my first "brushes" with a celebrity here in NY since I moved up here. Twice actually (she came back out shortly afterward). When we docked there was a bunch of applause in the pier as the people waiting to board the ferry saw her. Took a while, but I finally was able to get through the crowd.



Walked up towards Battery Park to chill out a bit and grab an ice cream. Then walked up towards Brooklyn Bridge, stopping at the South Street Seaport where there were a lot of outdoor restaurants, booths, and street performers. Enjoyed watching some of them for a little while until it started to rain. Then it started to rain hard. I ran towards the closest subway station (Fulton St) and by then it stopped. Typical. So I walked back up trying to make my way further north and it started raining again. So I ducked into the closest subway station (City Hall St) and took an R back up to 8th St station. Then I had to run for it back to my sublet because it was coming down hard at this point.



Once I was in the safety of my sublet I waited out the rain (and hail, I believe). It was coming down really hard. When it finally seemed to ease up again, I ventured out through Washington Square Park (lots of downed branches including one huge one that fell behind me as I walked past). I'd the hankering some more good okonomiyaki and takoyaki, so I went back up to Otafuku on E 9th St to indulge myself. Ordered and spoke to the guy in Japanese and then made my way back to Washington Square Park to eat the yummy goodness. Then back to my sublet and that was my night. Just rained a bunch more here (loud thunder too), so looks like I made it back to my sublet just in time.

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