Exploration
It can be fairly tempting to stay within about a 10-block radius of the apartment -- with all of life's creature comforts easily found within walking distance, it takes effort not to get too provincial. This Saturday and last, John and I have pushed our boundaries out by exploring the far reaches of what we know about New York.
Last weekend we walked from our place in the 60s up to 125th Street, one of the main drags in Harlem. Along the way we strolled through a street fair, fed ourselves at Zabar's, wandered around Columbia's campus, discovered a tiny little museum, and visited Grant's Tomb, among other things. Then we hopped a train to the far northern tip of the island, where there's a lush park and Columbia's football stadium. Yeah, I know -- Columbia has a football stadium?
This Friday, we trekked out to Brooklyn for pizza with a couple we met at a recent dinner party. They were great hosts and a lot of fun to hang with, and Park Slope is a hopping area. We didn't want to seem like tourists with them, so JT got a few arty shots on the subway but then kept the camera put away for the night.
Saturday we got a slow start. While I was lounging in bed, reading the paper and sipping coffee, I saw an article that mentioned an old Lipton tea factory in Hoboken that's been converted to condos facing the Hudson River. We keep hearing how people love Hoboken, so after a little Googling about the condos and good restaurants, we headed off to the birthplace of Frank Sinatra.
The moment we got off the train, I loved it. Loved it! The downtown area has great old historic architecture, and the business district seems to have the aesthetic appreciation of a place like Amsterdam, where each shop and cafe is more beautiful than the last.
We spent the afternoon mainly walking around and taking it all in, including a little real estate fantasizing. If we had any notions that getting out of Manhattan would mean affordable housing, the dozens of real estate offices with million-dollar homes advertised in their windows disabused us of that foolish notion. It's cheaper than Manhattan, but for the price of a pretty nice Old West Side home in Ann Arbor, you might be able to get a one-bedroom condo. Seems everything's becoming "luxury" housing, with prices to match.
Fortunately, there's still some of Sinatra's hometown that hasn't become pure yuppie-ville. Like Leo's, an old-school Italian restaurant where the waitress grabbed my arm and told me we couldn't get the spinach -- haven't I been watching the news, sweetie?
posted by Colleen at
9:59 PM
2 Comments:
I guess no more conveniently pre-washed, pre-bagged salad for me for a while either. One more challenge for healthy living. I have discovered since my first tomato plants matured this year that the stuff that are sold in grocery stores are actually some leftover from aliens. Real tomoatoes have *flavor*. Who knew?
Isn't it lovely how many interesting places there are to discover? So many interesting places and so little time.
By
Anonymous, at 9/25/2006 3:46 PM
My mom actually ordered eggs florentine when we went out to breakfast two Sundays ago, and was very upset with me when I, and also the waitress, suggested that maybe she didn't want to do that. She also didn't wear a seatbelt on the way home. The lady lives on the edge.
I was in Hoboken for a few hours years ago, in college. My then-boyfriend and I visited his uncle in some apartment building. I remember nothing of the cool stuff you include here but, knowing my ex-boyfriend, he probably was clueless about it.
Also, it's easy to be provincial in far less dense places. Just this week, after nine years of living in Ann Arbor, for the first time I visited the Leslie Science Center and Zingerman's bakehouse and creamery out by the airport. Maybe I'll even hit, oh I don't know. Milford one of these days.
By
Anonymous, at 9/25/2006 7:53 PM
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