NYC take 2 with the Lion

Ian's out with some of his landscape architecture friends, so I'm taking advantage of me-time and catching up (a little!) with blogging! I'll start where I left off: Jordan's visit in July. He arrived super early on a Saturday morning, later than he planned due to the Greyhound bus driver accidentally driving all the way to Jersey. We still made it to the Bolt Bus stop in time for our ride to NYC, and met up with Carissa when we got there. We have 182 photos from this two-day excursion, so I'll get right to the photo highlights!

We started out in Bryant Park, design by Olin.

This was the carousel we sat by, and where were approached by an man who needed grocery money.

As we were walking, we ran across the Naked Cowboy.

Ian and Jordan chilled at Columbus Circle.

We accidentally ended up on Fifth Avenue, and saw the Dolce & Gabbana store. Freaky. America is so materialistic.

This was an interesting members-only cool enclave we saw around there.

We saw this amazing jazz band while hanging out in Central Park.

 

This cute little kid was fascinated by the drummer.

We walked down Park Avenue.

We saw the waterfalls installed as artwork by Olafur Eliasson, who was featured at the MoMA on our last NYC visit.

We herded onto the Staten Island Ferry. It was a lot of people!

*A funny video, again, since Ian doesn't tell me when he starts filming.

I found a web site that says that one ferry can carry 4440 passengers. That's a lot of life vests.

We visited Trinity Church, which completes, basically, our tour of National Treasure filming spots.

The day we were at Trinity Church happened to be Alexander Hamilton's death day, hence, the flowers.

Ian, as our tour guide, explained the design theory behind the park across from Ground Zero.

Ground Zero, 7 years later.

Ian, Jordan, Carissa, and I stopped to eat pizza after a LONG day of walking. My feet hurt. And that wasn't the end of our walking that day!

We walked past the New York Stock Exchange.

And walked halfway across the Brooklyn Bridge. I found it a little scary, suspended over water and high speed traffic, but it was a beautiful view!

We made our pilgrimage to the Apple Store. The actual store is underground. Above ground is a glass box, with a round glass elevator and a glass spiral staircase. Below is heaven.

The guys stayed with a couple of Carissa's church friends in Brooklyn, and I stayed with Carissa at Fordham. Sunday morning we took the train back into the city, and got off at Grand Central Station.

Here's a random platform.

Ian tried to feed a squirrel some bacon.

But apparently the squirrel was vegan. One sniff and he retreated.

We visited another award-winning park, designed by Thomas Balsley, a pompous jerk. The park now has overgrown bamboo, lots of trash behind that orange wall, and creepy homeless people. No dog run, though. When we listened to his lecture, Balsley emphasized he tries to put in dog runs in every project he does, because apparently that's what makes a space successful. Can you tell I'm not impressed?

We ran into a cool park on the way from creepy park, I mean Capitol Plaza, to the bus stop. It was simple and relaxing.

That's the end for now! I'll continue sometime soon (hopefully) with Jordan and Karen's overlapping visits in Philly, and our remaining time there and trip back to Kansas!