Scaling The Highline Heights (Third Day, Bonus Leg)

Here is the promised "bonus walk" along the recently completed Highline Park. The Old Guy and I had walked it once before on a delightful Sunday summer afternoon. In fact, it was after the brunch we enjoyed in The River Room, which was discovered as part of Riverbank Park (the park built on the Hudson over the sewage treatment plant)...the park we discovered at the end of the first section of "the walk."
So, history is repeating itself. And, I can also repeat my lament of not finding great (or even good) ice cream anywhere along this adventure (heck, almost anywhere in the city). Little did I know that, as we walked out of The Standard Grill and headed down a few blocks to the southernmost entrance of the Highline (at Washington Street and West 12th Street) that my gelato prayers were about to be answered...I had just read about the sudden proliferation of "gourmet" sidewalk food carts and trucks, and Van Leewan's ice cream was prominent in the piece. Now, it loomed so invitingly right in front of me...and with a smallish line. Ahh...cream heaven! It was certainly no more expensive than other homemade, high-fat content ice creams of it's type...and quite delicious! A bonus to our having to wait for the chilled delight was Nature Girl running into some old friends, with kids in tow, who happened by on their way to see if they could squeeze into The Standard Grill (somehow, I doubt they got in).
Fully sated, we climbed the stairs to what is one of the great re-purposing ideas of all time. Take a useless eyesore that has, by the very fact of it having survived decades of use, abuse, abandonment and decay, become a last link to history in a quickly changing neighborhood, and turn it into something with beauty and purpose. Of course, we didn't think of it first -- the French did. And, the French version -- an aqueduct that runs approximately from the Bastille all the way into Paris' southwestern suburbs -- is a much more tranquil run. Of course, the French version is a few years old now, while the much-publicized Highline only opened last spring.
So, true to anything that is considered both "hot" and "way cool," it is generally mobbed, especially on any given warm, sunny weekend day. At least this time there wasn't a waiting line to climb the West 12th Street stairs (can you believe a waiting line to enter a park)! And, is the wait worth it? When it's not as new and the hype (and the crowds) have died down, it will be.
The clever "railroad tie" design of the gardens and the upscale "worn patio wood" of the path are quite well-done. Even some of the tracks themselves were left...



The views are respectable...and our requirement of seeing the Hudson River from our stroll is intact.

And, I believe I mentioned previously that the Highline snakes through a number of former warehouses, including The Standard Hotel.
On this bright Sunday afternoon we were not treated to the "peep shows" that have been viewed and recorded by Highline strollers. It seems there are a great many exhibitionists among the guests at this "funky but chic" hotel...I heard that some of them put the "girls in the neon windows" in Amsterdam to shame.
Veterans of this journey from top to bottom of Manhattan along the Hudson River that NG and I are, we're much less impressed with the seating up here than I was when OG and I first too this stroll early last summer. We've seen the same clever benches and loungers (and tables and swiveling chairs) further north along the water path. And, those weren't nearly as crowded as these...

Though we've been heavily focused on the Hudson and what we're finding on our stroll along it, I think the much more intriguing views from the Highline are looking east across the number streets and up along the highways of the Far West Village and Chelsea.

There's a real feeling of "wide-openness" that you don't experience in other parts of the city, mostly because this part of town was historically not viewed as "prime real estate" and was left to light manufacturing, warehousing and small townhouses, tenements and parking lots. While I applaud some of the "art-inspired" new architecture that is going up in this area, I worry that many of the old buildings loaded with character and charm here, like the nearly block-long Union Theological Seminary (built in the early part of the 20th Century in a distinctly 19th Century Victorian style). It would truly be a shame to see these glorious edifices be lost in the "march of progress."
The "prettified" part of the Highline now ends at West 25th Street, but plans are afoot to have the entire elevated...all the way up to the railroad bed at 34th Street...be made "walk-worthy" by next summer.
But, I must confess that the tiniest amount of boredom crept into my conscious and I know exactly why. No food on The Highline. Well...there is an "Arte del Gelato" cart (with only a few flavors) and an small deli-like cafe, which didn't interest me at all. I hear that a few of the Chelsea Market restaurants are vying for a spot along this one section that runs through one of the aforementioned warehouses, with cover from the elements and room for tables and chairs. I'm sure that concession space is going to cost quite the "pretty penny" -- "no matter where you go...there you are." (A little digression for all you "Buckaroo Bonsai" fans). Restaurants and food options are likely why I like the east-facing view better...there are soooo many restaurants running along 10th Avenue - from Cookshop to La Luncheonette to The Red Cat to a plethora of small, authentic Japanese sushi and kaiseki boits.
NG, OG and I trundled down the winding stairway that spilled out onto 10th Avenue, trekking back to NG new car and anticipating the fourth...and last...leg of "the walk."