Touring New York, our First Full Day: Times Square, the Dakota, Macy's, and the Garment District

Mom and I spent a bit of time touring New York today, we took it easy while we waited for my sisters to arrive and rode a double decker bus. The bus tour was actually very interesting. We saw a lot of spots that we will go back to with my sisters. We started out at Times Square and saw the billboards in daylight, and I had my camera with me. Take this billboard, for instance. The people beside it, the cars on the street, and the surrounding buildings really help to give a perspective of the size of the billboards! The people are on the second level of a double decker bus!

The Dalai Lama is in New York, too. I wish I'd known. I'd like to have arranged to see him! In any case, he, too, has his own billboard, and it is also fairly large! Just saw him on tv he is wearing a ball cap. Maybe he was speaking outside! It was HOT! I got a little pink, today!

We had some great tour guides on our double decker bus. Yes, guides. We had more than one, because we were on for a shift change. One of our guide was born in Harlem, but now lives in Brooklyn. She added a personal touch to our Harlem tour. I got a quick shot of the famous Apollo theatre where they say Simon Cowell from American Idol, would seem like a really nice guy on a Wednesday night...

We also saw the famous Dakota building..famous for a number of reasons, one being that John Lennon was killed there. A security guard now mans the entrance.

In the downtown area we saw the famous Macy's. I liked the side facade with the shopping bag.

In the Garment District, what struck me as interesting were the number of buildings that are built out of cast iron. When they were built in the mid 1800s fairly cheaply as they could be purchased in pieces and put together quickly. They were then given brick and stone facades to give them the look of surrounding buildings. The problem came in the fact that being in the garment district, there were lots of fires and cast iron has a low burning point. There are many that remain, however. In fact there are quite a number that have modern looks on the inside, which have been converted into condos. I took pictures of a few.

Sleepless in ......New York?

First night in New York. Taking a slight adjustment in time zone into account and being in a different bed, it's likely you won't sleep well first night on a holiday. Then there's the noise from the street. Fifteen floors up you can still hear the horns beeping on the street! Times Square is busy till after 2:30 a.m., so the traffic is, too. Around 3:00 there were no more horns beeping. They started up again by 5:00 a.m. A couple of emergency vehicle sirens were heard between 3:00 and 5:00. Can you tell I wasn't sleeping? 

Oh well! This is a part of being on a holiday! By the end of the week I won't even notice the horns honking. In fact, as soon as I woke up I wanted to get up and get dressed and just go outside and walk around in the hustle and bustle of it all.

Off for another adventure. Check back later!

Arriving in New York

Mom and I travelled to New York, today. Our flights were on time, the turbulence was mimimal and customs was quick. In the Toronto airport we had a quick visit with a friend of my mom's.

When we lined up for our connection for Toronto to New York I saw Liam Neeson  in the line. Unfortunately, she didn'trecognize him. He sat in first class with an orange baseball cap and glasses. He looked down the whole time. Anyway, this isn't a blog about Liam Neeson!

Here's mom in Toronto airport as we waited for our flight. Looking VERY good! Who would know this is a trip to celebrate her 70th birthday...unless you were guessing that we were celebrating it 15 years early!

Tonight, after we arrived, we walked a few blocks down 7th Avenue right into Times Square. The lights were crazy. Lots of people, interesting things to see, and smell :) !!

We were very touristy and ate at Bubba Gumps for supper. We shared a great salad of pears, raspberries, strawberries, baby greens, and a raspberry vinagrette and a dish of linguine, shrimp, capers and lemon. Yummy. They list their calorie count on every dish. Ours was pretty light! We stopped at a deli and picked up fresh fruit for the morning.

More touristy things tomorrow. Sisters two and three will show up tomorrow, too, after 7:00 p.m

New York

One day until New York...!

Stereotypes

The last time I was in New York state I was 8 years old. We were on our way home from Prince Edward Island. We had travelled through Canada to get there and travelled through the northern states to return home. We saw the skyline of New York city from a distance and camped in a New York state campground.
In the campground, as with most campgrounds, we met some nice families. I don't know if it was the fact that we were in a school bus converted into a camper, or the frendly people, or the combination of both? Anyway, I remember this particular stop because of what happened.

At this campsite, one family asked lots of questions about our home in Canada. Did we live in igloos? How cold was it?
At eight years old I was pretty disgusted by their lack of knowledge. We were only a day out of Canada, by bus. I'd never seen an igloo in my whole life. I didn't even know how they built igloos. In fact, I was pretty sure they were built of ice.

My experience with structures built out of ice was limited to the amazing ice slides my father built for us each winter. These ice slides were snow packed on a large plywood board that my dad would lean against our playhouse deck. To us this was at least a million feet off of the ground, in reality, about 6 feet or so. Dad leaned the plywood against our slide and then he would pack on the snow and bring it down to the ground packing it into a nice curve around our yard. It was a wonderful ride, where you needed to tuck your elbows in to get the best distance and to ensure minimal brusing, the round sled was the best.
The reason the slide was so great was because of the time and effort dad spent on the ice. He hooked the hose up to the kitchen sink and sprayed the snow carefully to make a smooth surface. There were also buckets and buckets of water carried out. This process was somewhat mysterious, since it generally occurred while we were getting ready for bed and not under foot.
However, this was my only reference to ice making. Frankly, ice making in my mind for igloos seemed to involve hoses and kitchen sinks...my dad had built us forts, they were tiny and you couldn't sleep in those. It was confusing and we were in shorts at a campground where adults were asking if we lived in an igloo. I guess that's why I've remembered it all these years.
By the way, I also know that igloos are actually made with snow, not ice. I guess I wasn't the only person who was living in stereotype world! Go figure!

Journals

When I was quite young I began journalling. My youthful journals were full of daily anecdotes that tell the story of my day.
"Today was boring." or "Today I had homework" or "Today I got a letter from my grandma" You know, the kind of thing that could give me lots of content for my memoirs...or not! :)

When I hit my teens, there was lots of angst. So and so was mean, so and so never talked to me, I liked so and so. There were pages and pages about the loss of my first dog, pages and pages about friends not liking me. Pages and pages about thinking I was ugly, unloveable, etc. There were also pages and pages about teenage traumas and confusion. As a young adult I was pretty self-possessed, but at a certain point I questioned my worth and value. My journals represented some tough points in my life. So, in the end I burned my journals, to get rid of that evidence...

Oh to know then what I know now. I would have kept those journals. They represented the good and the bad, yes, but I needed to have those experiences to be the woman I am today.

The other thing those journals did, was to keep me balanced. Even if they were mundane. They were an outlet and and opportunity to reflect. I wrote in them daily. In many ways they were my way to quiet my mind, essentially, my form of meditation.

I think that this is the reason I am really enjoying blogging. It is much like journalling. However, I always have the potential of an audience. It keeps me in balance. I quiet my mind and reflect on things that matter to me, but I also stay away from the teenage angst thing! If I have something that troubling, it belongs somewhere else!

I recently found this really interesting post on another blog. It was yet one more crafting blog, but it was about journalling. The blogger posted the following videos about fabric journaling. Essentially, the woman (Teesha Moore) who uses this technique journals by expressing herself through fabric. Her fabric journals have a place for you to write, draw, or even paint, but some of her journals are pages of fabric. They are really interesting. I hope to try this sometime. It's a really interesting concept. Check them out! I like the idea of journaling, whatever way...by blog, in fabric, on paper, because it is a good creative outlet that brings balance.

I've attached the first of four Teesha Moore videos below. Click on her name (below) if you want to link to the other three.

fabric journal 1 of 4 from teesha moore on Vimeo.

Integrity

Integrity does not blow in the wind or change with the tide. It is the inner image of our true selves.