Wish You Were Here (Fourth Day, First Leg)

Today was, without doubt, the most beautiful day to finish our trek from north to south, end to end, along the Hudson River -- just to see if it can be done, and to eat some great food along the way.  Cloudless sky with temperatures in the sun in the mid-60s, slight breeze every now and then.

However, an early-morning phone call did cast a shadow over the day.  My main partner in walking...the hand that (gently) shoved this idea into reality...the trek's ultimate "path-finder" Nature Girl (aka Sacagewa) was sick and unable to take part in the "glory lap" to the finish line.   Were it not for the glorious weather and returning participation of both Upstate Annie (enroute all the way from Poughkeepsie) and the Old Guy (not coming much farther than our garage), the last leg of the walk, from 14th Street to the Staten Island Ferry Terminal, might have been postponed indefinitely.
So, it is with a saddened heart and heavy feet that Upstate, OG and I parked the white Focus (aka, "the lemon") almost exactly where NG had left her car during our third day of walking and was on the trail by 9:45 a.m.  Below is the obligitory group shot at the start of the day...

...and a photo of our portrait artist, Lakeisha, who looked like she was out for a morning stroll along the same path, albeit a lot more stylin' than any one of us!














This part of the journey was going to be particularly interesting to the OG and I as we used to live on West 10th Street (a good 15 years ago) and were stunned by how remarkably well the Parks Department transformed the "barely there" cracked and rutted bike path on the west side of the West Side Highway, usually strewn with broken bottles, used needles and other debris, into a wide, paved stretch that had run all the way from 59th Street down through the Village...and likely beyond. 

And, forget about the piers.  Those rotted wooden piers that were leaning and creaking and just lying in wait for the unwary to end up in the drink are now more of what we had seen all along this river road...concrete oasis of creative and inviting benches, trees, flora and recreation features that certainly made for a pleasant stroll.  Just goes to show what happened when major commerce along the river "dried up" and the city realized that another kind of commerce (that involving making the Hudson River's Manhattan bank a "greenbelt" to attract apartment-dwellers to move to the Far West side of town) not to mention tourists (from near and far) wanting unparalleled views of Lady Liberty, Ellis Island, the New Jersey Palisades and the mighty Hudson herself.

Upstate Annie took over for NG (or Sac) in pointing out where we were on the handy historical and geographical maps of what is at this point officially called Hudson River Park (all 550 acres of it, from 59th Street to the Battery -- the largest developed park space in Manhattan since the completion of Central Park, so the sign says).

It wasn't quite all a "bed of roses" (visual pun intended) along this part of the trail, especially when we walked past this gate...

...housing a number of sanitation trucks and part of the city's supply of salt.  Not only was it a rather "odiferous" passing, it also was a sad reminder tha this glorious early November sunshine will soon be replaced with the bitter cold and snow of a typical New York winter (I'm already shuddering and hunching at the thought).
We had a number of banners and signposts to continually orient us as we headed south along the river. 

And, many new buildings mingling with old favorites on the east side of the Highway, into the depths of the West Village.

There was some real landscape creativity in place of the old piers, totally consistent with what we had seen further upriver...

I know Upstate Annie must have been pretty fed up with the number of times OG and I exclaimed "this is so different...so much better...than when we lived down here!"

While there were many places along the river walk where we saw sculptures (from artists -- known and unknown) the greatest juxtaposition of the famous and avant garde was just ahead.  A unique Jim Dine sculpture sparked a debate among the triumverate as to whether it was an apple in mid-peel, a marischino cherry or highly-stylized pumpkin (considering the time of year, I'll say pumpkin). 

I caught the OG peering through its core...

"Cat and Ape" ...

may harken back to a children's story, but none of us knew it.  Then there was the Louise Bougouis "Eyeballs"  (this is not a pornographic site so I will refrain from making the obvious observation).Full disclosure:  this pair ("Cat and Ape" and "Eyeballs") were way down in a new "pocket park" named after former NYC Mayor Robert F. Wagner, Jr., just north of Battery Park, but the above art discussion warranted including them in this part of the tale.

You might have thought the Bougouis was the "avant garde" scuplture I refered to earlier, but I actually was talking about this below...The best we could figure is that they were "plastic fish" filled with all kinds of garbage (Upstate Annie saw a Dunkin Donuts cup in the tail, and a plastic milk container in another).  After wondering if the containers were filled with chemicals to a) measure the water's cleanliness or b) filter the water,  UA posited the theory that it was to show what the river fish digest. 

Our new buddy, Park Clean-Up Steve,figured the same and said they had only been added recently...he thought as a Halloween stunt.  I think I'll go with the Dine and Bougouis.  I'll leave other art-lovers to ponder this for a while...until the next posting.

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."