Hewing closely to tradition again, we ask unsuspecting fellow strollers to take our photo at the start of the walk, just at the top of the Houston Street pedestrian bridge that goes over the FDR Drive, giving us access to the water-side. Kudos to our photographers, who took an excellent photo (even I don't look too bad). They are Tess, Christian and Charlene. Tess and Christian live in the neighborhood (we're on the border of the East Village and Lower East Side) -- and their taking Tess' mom, Charlene from Middletown, NY, to brunch at Clinton Street Bakery, which is quite good. They had a reservation in a while (it was approximately 9:30 a.m.), so they were standing on the bridge, admiring the East River and enjoying the wonderful weather. Why, here they are!
This also may be "deja vu" because I think we're starting a little further south than where we left off from the last "official" stroll. I'll try not to repeat any photos or information.
Did I say it was a glorious day? As we walked along the middle part of John V. Lindsay Park, named after the former mayor as he was largely responsible for creating this lovely expanse along the East River (I wrote about him "ad nauseum" a few entries back), I marvelled at how well they have restored it, much like what we saw last year strolling down along the Hudson River...
It was also heartening to be walking right along the water's edge...even when NG commented that a tsunami was heading right towards us...
Okay, so she may have exaggerated slightly, but it was a somewhat unusual wave for the East River!
I felt like we were moving a bit slower than usual...probably because none of us wanted to rush our stroll on what may be one of the last really warm and sunny days of the fall. As loyal readers know, I really don't like winter weather...I like being hot much more than being cold...though I'd never consider moving to "retiree heaven" in Florida. I always find fall a bit bittersweet -- the remarkable nature extravaganza that is the turning of the leaves is always an eye-ful of color, but it also means that "old man winter" is closing in. I have to say that this year is a bit odd in that the trees don't seem to be turning very quickly...there's still way too much green in them (which I kinda like as I can fool myself into thinking that winter really isn't coming), but I also heard that this isn't going to be a very good fall in terms of leaf color quality because of the terribly hot summer (with little rain) that we just enjoyed (or endured, depending on your feelings about our seasons).
Back to the walk at hand...Even the views across the river had gotten a little more interesting, as we teetered on the border of Greenpoint, Brooklyn and Long Island City, Queens. Old warehouses had given way to church steeples and more new high-rises.
Apparently, for NG this was the day of either the "droopy socks" or untied shoelace syndrome. See below to understand what I'm talking about...
We were starting to get quite spoiled with the lovely, renovated walkway -- watching fellow path-dwellers as they enjoyed the stellar day...
...that we almost didn't notice the looming smokestacks of Con Edison's plant (which is around 14th through 18th Streets on the south-bound side of the FDR, and right before the neat and massive apartment complexes that are known as Stuy-Town (really Peter Stuyvesant Village).
And, it was here that we found this decidedly "western" looking building in our path...bringing our idyll along the riverbank to an abrupt end. 
We veered towards the highway, and the path wound past Con Ed and up towards 18th Street...
...which is where I'm going to leave you, approaching 23rd Street and reveling in a wonderful day for a walk!
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