After a fall back in the education field, I have to say, I was happy to re-retire and head off on my adventure to New York City!  Last Christmas, my husband gave me this trip and reached out to my university friend who I hadn’t seen, basically since university days.

The plan was to go earlier in the year, but family concerns postponed my departure a couple of times. As did my Vice Principal stint back at the school where I had spent much of my teaching career.  But that wrapped up on November 25, so first thing November 26, I was off to the airport!

Weird as it seems, there are no direct flights between Halifax and NYC. I chose to go to Montreal, because it’s a little closer and both flights to Toronto and Montreal arrived at virtually the same time at LaGuardia. Less time in the air meant more time I could walk around!

I arrived right on time, around noon, in NYC and had only carry on, so headed right to the Yellow Cabs, as instructed. I gave the cab driver the address in Harlem and he headed off without saying a word. It was pretty cool to watch the sky scrapers in the distance.

Arriving at my friend’s I found a street of brownstones and the apartment was absolutely beautiful. Very high ceilings, and a “jungle of a backyard” in the city.  I loved the place. Three floors, and she has a roommate in the downstairs. Upstairs two big bedrooms, bathroom and laundry.

My friend had a beautiful tomato soup ready (with feta in it…gotta remember that for the future) and a kale salad. We started the process of catching up on 40 years!

My list of things I wanted to see was long and we knew we had to start today if we were going to get to most places. We headed out to the subway. From one train to the next, we went to the Highline, which is an abandoned raised railbed that runs through parts of the city. It has been turned into a long narrow park like walk. Many areas have the rails still there and there is lots of art interspersed in the gardens.

We took a break from the Highline, and headed to the Vessel. I don’t know how to describe Vessel. It is not a building, but an architectural masterpiece. When you climb the stairs you are always outside and enjoying the views around. The Vessel wasn’t on my list, although I had seen information on it, but I am so glad that we stopped there.

We headed back to the Highline and enjoyed the sights along the way.  We realized that we were running just a little late to see the sunset on the water, so we hurried our way along the Highline.

Before we got to the end of the Highline, we exited it to head to Little Island. Little Island is a small park, built on top of concrete structures, shaped like wine glasses or stiletto heels. It was a small park, but even though there were a lot of people looking for the same view we were searching out, it didn’t feel exceptionally crowded. It felt kind of peaceful! The view of the city was stunning and we arrived just on time to see the colours in the sky.

We also headed next door to see the view from Pier 57. There was a viewing area on the top and second highest level. Downstairs it was mostly food court and restaurant areas.

The next stop was Chelsea Market. There were booths in the market as well as stores. Chelsea Market wasn’t as big as I expected but, it was really cool. The building was an old biscuit factory, National Biscuit Company (Nabisco), so the architecture was very fun for the market.

We toured this area, and then decided to eat. My friend had eaten at Creamline before, in the Market, and recommended the burgers and milkshakes, so we decided to eat there. Well, it was not a decision that we regretted in the least! I had the cheeseburger and Strawberry Milkshake. It was topped with whipped cream and some strawberry crunchy topping. It was deliciousness in a glass, and the burger seemed like more of a smash burger which had just the perfect flavour!  What a great meal!

We arrived back home, and I got frequent updates on how Simon was doing in the provincial election. He didn’t win, but was happy with the number of votes he got, the greatest number for an NDP candidate in our area since 2008. Not bad considering the 4-week timeline, 3 of which he was working night shift!

It was a long and exciting day and I happily curled up in the comfy spare bed!