...the Bronx. Then walked another 10 blocks or so... On Thursday afternoon, my parents were in town visiting from NJ. I rode my bike over to the subway... ...before heading over to west side... On Saturday Maddy and I went uptown... Wild. 50 storeys tall, completed in 1931. Spotted the crazy gothic rooftop of the GE Building coming back from a client on Thursday. Twilight skyline. Cab ride home with Amanda. Noticed a church with an interesting decagram window on the walk home. Went up to a fancy midtown building to meet with a new client. This! I'll bet male-attendance at this church has dramatically increased since the jerk BBQ restaurant opened next door. Hardly any traffic on a Wednesday. Took the backroads home. Perfect day for a drive. Hard to tell from this photo, but in-person you can see the Manhattan skyline from Rockaway. Four times a year, the sunset lines up with Manhattan's grid. ...free ferry that runs from southern Manhattan... Had a morning meeting with a client near Grand Central... Running errands around the neighborhood caught this guy snoozing in front of his garage sale. ...and admired the surrounding buildings. Gothic revival? Why is there a pine cone on top ? ;) While heading up the East River, we passed the ruins of the Renwick Smallpox Hospital on Roosevelt Island. NYC's bodegas are late-night oases of treats & fruit! One of the Freedom Towers going up near Battery City. Look, Murray Hill! The East Village has not-so-subtly changed. Police (very nosily) escorting a protest through our neighborhood. Spent the lovely spring day riding my bike around town to meet with two different consulting clients . Walking Maddy later that evening, I spotted this new matte-black Lenco Bearcat parked in the NYPD garage on my block. By the early afternoon, we were back in NYC and crossing over the bridge on our way over to Caiti's apartment to pick up Maddy ! On Tuesday evening I met up with Clayton and we headed down to the financial district to check out... ...and then even had a cooperative library! Despite being characterized by the mainstream media as a bunch of whining hippies, we saw a huge diversity of intelligent and clean people. Lots of police, but they for the most part seemed amused / interested. Full-sized model of a Predator attack drone. ...the third consecutive week of the Occupy Wall Street protest at Zucotti Park. Well organized food supplies... Live streaming video feed. ...to this! I am a much better jetski driver than I am jetski rider. Every time there was a wave, I kept making little girly screams and yelling "Look out!" Sunset. Sunday bus ride home. What a fantastic month. Happy July 2011! ...because I'd been called for Manhattan jury duty. On Monday I biked down to the Financial District at 8am... Central Park had a lot of soothing plants and nature, so coming out onto the square lines and concrete of Fifth Avenue on a Saturday evening was a little terrifying. Later that evening, we met up with Ellen, Cat and Mark! ...you can see Manhattan in the distance? ...then pink & purples! Nature's fireworks proceeded the man-made stuff. ...so colorful! Tangerine... Brooklyn. These two were stopped at a traffic light and I asked if I could take a photo of their awesomeness. So good! It drizzled rain for a bit... Back in town walking home later that evening, I spotted this amazing van along with a free mattress give-a-way After the red-eye I arrived back in the East Village... "Never has any sailor passed our shores in his black craft until he has heard the honeyed voices pouring from our lips, and..." "...once he hears to his heart's content, sails on, a wiser man." 8pm: time to head to the airport! Chains sickness. More tulips I liked. Tuli-popo on the walk to work. It's time to go home! Happy Birthday, Andrew! Thanks for all the great fun! Congrats to the winning team! Up bright and early Sunday morning to head back for day two at Shambhala. I like the new spaypainted swimmers on 10th street. After the show, we hailed a cab... Looking casual while leaning backwards over a glass railing 196' feet up is easier said than done. While we waited for the horse to arrive at the hotel (he was being transported down to Manhattan from upstate via trailer), Klaus (the manager of the hotel at the time) took us up to the roof so we could see the totally surreal view from the glass-edged roof deck. Breathtaking! Flatiron twilight. I left work a little early on Wednesday in order to run some last minute errands before departing on our trip to surf camp in Nicaragua ! Neat clouds. New York is neat because sometimes visiting another neighborhood you haven't been to in a while feels like you're visiting a whole other city. On our walk west to get something to eat, we had to wade through this Broseph line up. October means the beginning of Oktoberfest at Zum Schneider. It was a beautiful fall afternoon and we walked all the way back home. ...right near the Port Authority. (Which is like the Burbank of NYC, if you didn't know). Yep, right across the street from PEEP WORLD... ...the Manhattan Bridge. Down to Bowery and over... Later that Saturday afternoon, Meredith and I had to go out to Brooklyn to attend Marina & Fatty's baby shower. We decided to walk it. Down Ave C to Pitt Street. Bonus street carnival. Later that night, I walked down to Bowery Ballroom admiring the 9/11 memorial lights they'd just turned on... While I was sitting there, two guys showed up with upright basses and started playing together. They were both using bows and making haunting, mournful, beautiful sounds and a man wandered over holding his newborn son and was holding him up into the sound. All while reading a book about learning to let go and get lost in life moment to moment. Call it the reason I live here. Nothing like spending a week in nature to make your home look like garbage! Haha. I still love you, New York Shit-tay! After we were finished running around the empty building steps like monkeys, we headed over to the bridge... I hopped out at Delancey and walked over to the Soho Grand to to celebrate Leigh's belated-birthday! (Everyone else headed home to crash after Spa Castle!). Sun aligned down Delancey. ...the sun is setting over the city. Kept getting better. Dramatic clouds and rays of sunshine over Manhattan in the distance. Pretty walk home. Crazy colors. Mystery fruits. Ah, the fragrance. If you get off at Canal street... I'm always amazed at how even after just a few days out in the normal world, when you arrive at the Port Authority, the buildings seem unbelievably tall. Later that afternoon, we headed up to the Upper West Side to attend Jenny and Josh's engagement party! Happy 4th of July! Got to the waterfront with plenty of time to relax before the show. We made it home a little after two. I took a shower and a quick nap and then... West sky. 
