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Category: travel

Charm and Caution Tape

Charm and Caution Tape

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I write this morning from my quiet cocoon in the suburbs, pining for the cacophony I left behind. I stayed near NYU Hospital and the entrance to the Queens Midtown Tunnel, and except for the dead of night there was seldom a time when sirens weren’t sounding and horns weren’t honking.

A nuisance? It would be if I lived there. But as a visitor I accept it as part of the bargain. You come to the largest city in the country not for silence but for stimulation, and of that there was plenty. 

As I lace up my trusty tennis shoes for a walk through the neighborhood, I think about what they took me through yesterday: up and down the East River Greenway and across the city to Penn Station, dodging traffic, construction and the yawning maw of open basement stairways. 

The whole city should be wrapped in yellow caution tape. But that, strange to say, is part of its charm.

(I snapped this photo on yesterday’s walk.) 

Manhattan Monochrome

Manhattan Monochrome

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The clouds moved in and gave the photos from Roosevelt Island a monochromatic moodiness. But they didn’t spoil the views of Manhattan, which are primo from this two-mile strip of land in the East River.

There’s the United Nations building on the left and the Chrysler Building and One Vanderbilt faint gray in the middle of the shot. There are skyscrapers made of steel and glass and masonry. There is the city in all of its heft and all of its of splendor.

I lived in New York City for five and a half years and never stepped foot on Roosevelt Island. I made up for it yesterday. 

Commuters’ Choreography

Commuters’ Choreography

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With all this energy and all these people, the question is why there are not more collisions. I’m not talking about people and automobiles, but about people and people. By what strange grace do pedestrians keep from running into each other?

I went to Grand Central Station to try and learn the answer. I observed commuters rushing to their trains, entering from 42nd Street or from the Met Life building, heading in scores of directions at once, never colliding. 

There’s an almost balletic precision to the movements, many narrow misses, but somehow people get where they’re going without rehearsing any of the bobs and weaves required to do it.

It’s worthy of Balanchine: the commuters’ choreography.

It’s Baaaack!

It’s Baaaack!

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Where to start, except to say that this place I once lived, this place I once feared had fallen prey to the emptiness and ennui that plagues many cities these days, has not only survived, it’s thrived. 

New York City is back … and it’s better than ever! Or at least that’s my humble opinion, influenced no doubt by a spot-on day of walking from east side to west side, uptown to down. Others might disagree, might say it’s dirtier, more crime-ridden. And I wouldn’t argue, given my tourist perspective. 

But as a place of great energy and drive, where people of all types rub shoulders with each other, where sirens blare, horns honk, street music sings, it cannot be beat.  

Big Apple Bound

Big Apple Bound

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It’s been a two years since I took in the Big Apple, so I’m heading up there today, to walk, visit with a dear friend, and soak up the big city vibe. 

Though I’ve traveled far and wide since then, it still seems like the place of places to me, where all roads lead. In my case, train tracks. But then, a lot of tracks lead there, too. 

I’ll do what I always do in any city, but especially this one — I’ll put as many miles on my old tennis shoes as I possibly can. I’ll become, at least for a few days, a walker in the city. 

A Pile of Petals

A Pile of Petals

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The climbing rose has come into its own, has come into and gone past it, if you want to know the truth. But it hung in there long enough for me to see it, even after I had the audacity to spend 10 days away during its peak blooming period. 

I attribute the rose’s survivability to scant rain and wind — and maybe, even to profusion: with so many buds to bloom, the process takes time.

Now comes the season of deconstruction, of light pink petals falling gently to the deck, the railing, the glass-topped table, even into the dregs of my morning tea. 

I keep a pile of petals beside me as I work. From time to time, I run my fingers through them and feel their velvety softness.

(The climbing rose seen from above and the pile of petals I kept beside me as I work.)


On the Fence

On the Fence

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A family in the Phinney Ridge neighborhood of Seattle has come up with a whimsical way to depict the immensity of space: they’ve turned their wooden fence into the solar system. 

On these planks you’ll see the sun, Mercury, Venus, Mars and Earth plus our moon. Far enough down the block that my phone camera couldn’t capture them in one shot are Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune. 

A final panel reads “Where is Pluto? Pluto would be across our neighbor’s driveway,” followed by a discussion of Pluto’s status as dwarf planet, a fact about which some scientists are “on the fence.” 😊

It’s not the sort of thing I’m used to seeing on my neighborhood walks. But isn’t that point of travel — to take us away and shake us up and help us see our world, even our universe, with fresh eyes? 

Night Flight

Night Flight

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We left Seattle for Virginia at an hour I consider normal for overseas flights, that is, almost midnight. But then we had almost as far to go, give or take a few hundred miles

Instead of crossing an ocean, we traversed a continent. In the dark of night we flew over cities and villages, swamps and high deserts. In a darkened cabin, we covered the distance of this broad land. 

And now, after a few hours of catch-up sleep, I’m sitting where I so often do, at a desk overlooking a green yard, my slice of this planet: home. 

Ballard Locks

Ballard Locks

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In Seattle, you can’t escape the water, nor would you want to. Lake and sound, salt water and fresh, creek and marsh. One of the most fascinating water experiences in the city is to be found at the Ballard Locks, where boats pass from Puget Sound to Lake Union and Lake Washington (or vice versa). 

Locks are one of those technologies of which I have a theoretical understanding but had never seen in action until the other day.The Ballard Locks, I learned, carry more boat traffic than any other locks in the country, so there’s a good chance you’ll see a ship pass through this engineering marvel. 

To witness a craft at eye level and then, only a few minutes later, see it 25 feet lower … well, let’s just say it reminds me, once again, of the power of showing over telling.