18 May - 5 June 2012
First time in the States for me and New York City no less, thanks to my little brother, ZY and his wife, WY, who've been working there for 2 years now. Funny how i've never considered the U.S in all my travels so far, thinking it might not be as romantic as Europe or possess the ethnic charm of Asia but i can now officially say that i LOVE NYC, yay! I'm surprised by the many old classical churches and brownstone and brick apartments since i mistakenly thought NYC full of modern looking buildings, not that there aren't any; in fact NYC has a pretty wide range of architectural styles, from the old classical churches to the infamous Art Deco style of the Chrysler and Empire State buildings, to the modern skyscrapers like One World Trade Centre, which is currently under construction at the Ground Zero site.
NYC kinda reminded me a little of London, i'm not sure if it's the architecture or the parks or the shopping but it just did; well for what it's worth NYC was once under English rule and i hear it got its name from the Duke of York?
The thing i loved most about NYC were the many green parks and open urban spaces that were always filled with people, especially despite NYC being a rather compact and gridded city, which by the way, is kinda efficient and practical, especially how the streets and avenues were numbered chronologically such that you could always gauge how many blocks you were away from anywhere. So yes, we sure did a whole lot of walking, which really was the best way to check out a city anyway!
Saturday 19 May
Arrived on Friday night after a stopover in Hong Kong and ZY kept saying he couldn't believe we were finally here, like we were physically right here right now in their NYC apartment. Pics of the apartment later on, it's um, really
tiny compact and
squeezy cosy ;P. The apartment is on 29th Street, between 2nd and 3rd but they're moving to a new place by month's end, cos they wanna experience staying in a different neighbourhood.
Waiting for our breakfast table at
Penelope's at one of the street corners near the apartment.
The place was crowded with people and a queue was forming as early as 10am, especially since WY said that most places don't open that early.
Our hosts for the weekend :)
Strawberry waffles and butter, my first meal in NYC and it was really good! So good i had it a second time towards the end of the trip.
Crossing the street to take the subway on a quiet Saturday morning. I never know which way's North so despite having a map in hand in the most easy to navigate gridded city, it always took me a while to figure out which way to turn whenever we emerge from the subway station.
Buying tickets for the ferry to Williamsburg in Brooklyn. ZY tells me NYC is made up of 5 boroughs; Manhattan, where they lived, Queens, Brooklyn, Staten Island and the Bronx.
So much love.
We waited quite a long while for the ferry to arrive, even after most of the crowd had left on the ferry headed for Ikea.
Dad and brother. View of buildings in Queens, i think.
The ferry has arrived finally!
On board the ferry with the Manhattan skyline behind us.
It was pretty windy and we kinda got scorched by the morning sun on the ferry.
Manhattan skyline with the tallest two being the iconic Empire State and Chrysler buildings.
Arrival at Williamsburg, Brooklyn.
Smorgasburg Flea Market cos it was a saturday. We're waiting to sample some columbian food. It was here that i realised chipotle is pronounced
chee-poh-leh and not
chee-portal ha ha.
I love dining outdoors!
Chicken
arepa de queso, or something quite close.
The weather was too good to obey the sign. I really love that in NYC wherever there was grass, you'd find people on it.
Graffiti wall along Bedford Ave in Williamsburg, an edgy district that reminded me of Brick Lane in east of London, which i liked.
Couldn't resist making WY walk across this wall for me to take a pic.
Vintage finds at
Catbird along Bedford Avenue.
Sampling of subway stations in NYC, ie. old and not so clean but that's fine by me cos i love being in train stations, all kinds.
I'm totally cruising this trip cos i did no research or planning whatsover as i was busy at work right up to the day we left. Fortunately we had really good hosts! :)
Columbus Park in Williamsburg.
We were looking for a grass patch to lie on, preferrably with a view of the Brooklyn Bridge and Manhattan skyline.
Brooklyn Bridge from down below.
Napping by the Brooklyn Bridge, as was everyone else.
ZY fetching us some ice-cream while we napped.
So much love.
Family stunts in front of the tripod where we do funny things to embarrass ourselves.
Take #1
Take #5
Take #12. Just kidding, these 3 pictures were all we took of us jumping. Really.
Manhattan Bridge. ZY and me contemplated which was the nicer of the two bridges.
Check out the double decked bridge. The bottom deck was for the subway if i'm not wrong.
Carousel at this area called DUMBO which stands for Down Under Manhattan-Brooklyn Overpass.
DUMBO was a pretty nice space to hang out by the river between the two bridges.
Another thing that i absolutely adored about NYC was how dogs go wherever people go. Methinks the happiest dogs belong in NYC! Check out this huge fella!
Crossing Brooklyn Bridge on foot back to Manhattan in the evening.
Brooklyn Bridge is one of the oldest suspension bridges in the States and the first steel-wire suspension bridge to be constructed.
Stopping for apples to quench thirst at the halfway mark of the bridge.
We walked to Chinatown which was rather near the end of Brooklyn Bridge on the Manhattan side where we had some cantonese for dinner before heading home.
Sunday 20 May
90min self-drive to Woodbury, where i can't believe we managed to $pend an entire $unday.
$unday $hopping $pree at the premium outlet malls.
We were one of the last to leave at around 10pm when all the shops were closed. Good grief!
Well, i can only say we love our family and friends very much heheh. Am i so glad this was over and done with early.
Pay up pay up!
Monday 21 May
It's the start of the working week for ZY and WY so it's just me and my folks today. We went to the Grand Central Terminal which was um, really grand!
Grandness! Many movies including a scene in X-Men were filmed here.
Found out later that the ceiling is actually a reverse painting of the constellations and some theories say cos it's seen as how God would see it.
There was an Apple store on the mezzanine level where many people were just standing around testing all the various Apple products.
The Vanderbilt family built and owned this station, hence the name Vanderbilt appearing on archways and hallways. I wonder what those 2 guys were doing at the ends of this archway.
Wide ramps connecting to the dining concourse one level below the main concourse. That's where the Oyster Bar was located.
Ramp down to the lower concourse. Love the loftiness of the high volume passageways.
Magnificent!
Grand Central Market at the Grand Central Terminal.
Passing through Times Square to meet ZY and WY for dinner on 44th Street.
Times Square was pretty much how i imagined it to be, if not livelier and oh-so-many-people! Ooh i wanna watch Brave when it opens here.
Dinner tonight was at
Gyu-Kaku
Stoning while the waitress sets up our table.
One of the service managers was a Singaporean who said she'd been in NYC for 5 years and was ready to come home to Singapore at the end of the year.
Continuing to explore Times Square after dinner. It's awesome the sky was still this bright after 8pm.
Almost every theatre we passed boasted the best musical.
Dad thought Phantom too sombre so he said he rather watch something else.
I was going to catch Rent with an old JC classmate on Wednesday yay! And i'd watched Avenue Q in London two years ago.
Dad channelling Spidey.
Memphis
Family pic at Times Square.
Apparently the lights remain this bright all through the night!
WY and me outside our favourite shop. No, not Disney, don't be silly. It's to the right of Disney. Yup, the Forever 21 outlet in Times Square closes at 1am daily so no prizes for guessing what time we shopped till that night.
Just another one of those embarrassing things we sometimes do as a family in public.
Uh-huh. Good grief, no, we did not buy the tee-shirts. Nor the cushions.
Tuesday 20 May
This was truly a free and easy trip so each morning it'll be like wake up, mop around the apartment, look at the map and choose where we felt like going for the day. Decided it'll be Soho today since we could do lunch with ZY who works on Spring Street in Soho.
Soho stands for SOuth of HOuston Street and is part of the Cast Iron District according to my handy map. Apparently Soho boasts the greatest collection of cast-iron architecture in the world.
ZY brought us to Cafe Habana for Mexican lunch of burritos and some super yummy grilled Mexican corn.
We sat on a random bench by a random sidewalk to eat our lunch. Everytime the traffic lights turned red, drivers and their passengers would look out their window at us eating.
This Mexican corn was really really yummy!
Starbucks in Soho...
... where we left dad for the afternoon while mum and i checked out a bit of NoLIta which stands for North of Little Italy, to the east of Soho.
The shops with quaint shopfronts in NoLIta sold nice little dresses and shoes.
There were benches outside most storefronts - how considerate.
Lisa & Lisa, that's Mona with the pizza and my mom on the bench. This was outside Lombardi's where i planned on coming back for pizza.
Popped into
Yellow Korner photo gallery at the junction of Wooster and Prince Streets at ZY's suggestion.
Dad admiring gorgeous photographs of NYC sights and skyline.
Cobble stone driveways.
More benches outside storefronts, good for those tired legs.
Not sure if this was an example of cast iron architecture but loving it anyways.
I think this was at Lafayette Street, one of the bounding streets defining the Soho neighbourhood, where the buildings start becoming bigger and taller.
Picking out a framed NYC poster to add to my wall collection of knick-knacks from all my various travels.
Soba dinner for the family while i had dinner with my JC classmate tonight.
Daniel and I at
Blue Fin at W Hotel where he was staying for 3 nights. Daniel stays in San Francisco's Bay Area and happened to be in NYC for 3 days for a conference so we met for dinner and caught a broadway musical the next day.
I love the school of fishes mobile hanging over the staircase leading up to the restaurant. Oh and i love the shellfish platter we were having too.
Some whisky and wine to end the evening.
Not before taking a customary photo at Times Square just outside his hotel.
Wednesday 21 May
Walking was really a great way to check out a city and today we were walking to Madison Square Park between 24th & 25th Streets to meet ZY and WY for lunch.
We passed WY's office building along the way and stopped to take a picture, Dad's idea.
Walking down Park Avenue to get to Madison Square Park, which should be along Madison Avenue. After 2nd & 3rd Avenues, 4th Avenue splits early on to become Lexington, Madison and Park Avenues before returning to chronological order on 5th, 6th, 7th, 8th and 9th Avenues.
Shake Shack at Madison Square Park
The queue was really long, that's me at about 5 minutes into the queue. I think Shake Shack started out really as just one shack in the park. Now they have outlets all over NYC.
Luncheon in the Park!
Shake Shack burger and fries for lunch. Yums.
I love these outdoor dining parks!
Mr Squirrel nibbling away on a french fry.
Cute purple blooms in Madison Square Park. It started to drizzle as we ate.
Flat iron building; its wedge-shape building plan lends it its name.
Looking back at Flat Iron Building sitting on a triangular plot of land flanked by Broadway and 5th Avenue, with 22nd Street at its broader base and 23rd Street at the triangular tip of the plot. Broadway cuts diagonally across the grid and leaves these triangular plots of land; sometimes where unoccupied by a building you'd find outdoor tables and chairs sprawled between two vehicular roads, one of which is Broadway and the other either 5th or 4th or 7th avenue depending on whether you were at the downtown or midtown stretch of Manhattan. The stretch at Times Square is pedestrianised.
Madison Square Market; squares in NYC were always lively and had some sort of activity or bazaar going on. Very festive.
The world's largest bookstore.
Mummy in her afternoon reverie at a Starbucks next to Farmers' Market in Union Square. We walked down 5th Avenue from Madison Square Park to yet another square, Union Square.
People were walking their dogs everywhere we turned!
Dogs go into restaurants, shopping malls, literally everywhere! Have i mentioned that i think the happiest dogs are in NYC?
Farmers' Market in Union Square.
Beetroot?
Asparagus
View of Union Square from the DSW shop above the subway station where i parted ways with the family to go meet my friend to catch Rent, which was playing at New World Stage, a theatre off-Broadway.
Thursday 22 May
We started today really late and it was way past 3pm when we were done with lunch!
St Thomas Church on the way to MoMA
Motorcycle installation, outside the Seagram Building designed by Mies van der Rohe. We studied this building in school under the International Style, which is characterized by the external expression of a building's structure or if you prefer, functional aesthetics.
Outside the Museum of Modern Art or MoMA where i decided to come back another day when we had more time.
MoMA Design Store
Outside Radio City Music Hall, not that we had a concert to go to. I'm such the tourist, taking pictures in front of famous places ha ha.
Christies', i can't remember why Dad wanted a picture out here.
Rockefeller Centre is actually a complex of several commercial buildings that includes the Radio City Music Hall, the GE Building which is on 30, Rockefeller Plaza (30 Rock?) and other Art Deco style buildings characteristic of the 1930s. No wonder the few buildings in this area looked similar.
Beyond this was the Lower Plaza in which supposedly stands a plague with a list of beliefs expressed by John D. Rockefeller Jr. in 1941. I liked reading the principles he believed in:
"I believe in the supreme worth of the individual and in his right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
I believe that every right implies a responsibility; every opportunity, an obligation; every possession, a duty.
I believe that the law was made for man and not man for the law; that government is the servant of the people and not their master.
I believe in the Dignity of labour, whether with head or hand; that the world owes no man a living but that it owes every man an opportunity to make a living.
I believe that thrift is essential to well ordered living and that economy is a prime requisite of a sound financial structure, whether in government, business or personal affairs.
I believe that truth and justice are fundamental to an enduring social order.
I believe in the sacredness of a promise, that a man's word should be as good as his bond; that character not wealth or power or position – is of supreme worth.
I believe that the rendering of useful service is the common duty of mankind and that only in the purifying fire of sacrifice is the dross of selfishness consumed and the greatness of the human soul set free.
I believe in an all-wise and all-loving God, named by whatever name, and that the individuals highest fulfilment, greatest happiness, and widest usefulness are to be found in living in harmony with His Will.
I believe that love is the greatest thing in the world; that it alone can overcome hate; that right can and will triumph over might."
American flags galore at the Rockefeller Centre Plaza.
The Rockefeller Centre was declared a national history landmark in 1987.
Peeped inside St Paul's Cathedral where evening mass was about to commence.
Random diner for toast and coffee where the tablet seats amused me a bit.
The underground subway stations look like this during rush hour.
Dinner at Le Parisien, a french diner near the apartment.
Dad's early father's day present from ZY, WY and me.
This chicken dish was really tasty. But my favourite was the pot of mussels in white wine sauce.
Profiteroles for dessert.
Other related posts:
Part 2: NYC and the weekend in Niagara Falls
Part 3: NYC and the weekend in Boston
Part 4: NYC and making the most of the last day
