A Walk on the High Line

This morning it was raining, so Richard and I skipped our morning walk and did laundry. After breakfast, we rode the subway to Brooklyn so I could find the building where I will be in training all this week. It was easy to find and did not require changing trains at all, thank goodness. After riding there and back, it was around 10:50am. We went to Gotham West Market and had an early lunch. We went to Genuine Roadside and I was just in time to still be able to order breakfast, so I got their breakfast burrito, which was amazing! It had scrambled eggs, hashbrowns, chorizo chile, and salsa verde. Mmmmm... We went back to our apartment so Richard coud do some work, and I put together some outfits for the upcoming week. The weather cleared around 3pm, so we decided to walk the High Line. One of the teachers at my new school asked if I had been there, saying that its origin is near my apartment, so Richard and I looked for it yesterday, but didn't go very far on it because we had clothes in the community washing machine at the time. Today, we had already done our chores so we had plenty of time to give it a try. Just a few blocks down the river walk is one of the ends of the High Line.

This isn't my photo, btw, but I wanted you to have an idea of what it is. Here is the description from their website. "The High Line is a public park built on a historic freight rail line elevated above the streets on Manhattan's West Side. It runs from Gansevoot Street in the Meatpacking District to West 34th Street, between 10th and 12th Avenues." I would not have thought that many visitors would find such a place, but I was wrong! The walkway was packed! There are areas where you can stop and sit in the grass or stand behind a glass wall and look down at the city traffic below. It's unique and definitely a place that I will take out-of-town guests. I was still dressed in jeans and a long sleeved shirt since it had been cool in the morning. Not long after getting onto the walkway, I was hot! We saw people with light green popsicles and got excited that we might be able to find a cold treat. There were several different vendors along the way, and we ended up getting ice cream sandwiches. Richard bought 4 -- the 2 for us and 2 to "pay it forward." After a while, I got tired of being stuck behind strollers and aimless wanderers, going at a much slower pace than I wanted to walk, so we looked for a stairway to street level. As soon as we hit the street, there was an art show inside a big, open gallery. Of course I had to wander in. This is just the type of place I imagined finding in NYC. Here are a couple of pictures I took there.

 Richard got the crazy idea that we should have an early dinner in Little Italy since we were already out so we continued to walk for quite a while. We passed many interesting people wearing bright colors and carrying rainbow flags. The further we walked, the thicker the pedestrian traffic got. I could see a huge crowd ahead, and heard a lot of cheering. Apparently we were now in the midst of the NYC Pride Parade. There was no way around it or through it. We hopped in a taxi, thinking we might have better luck.There were so many streets blocked off and so much traffic that it was impossible to go in the direction we wanted to go, so the cab driver suggested that we set out sights on restaurant row, instead. He recommended Lattanzi, so we looked at their online menu and reviews from the backseat of the cab and decided it would be a good place to go for dinner. We were dropped off at the front door of the restaurant. It was not quite 5pm, so we were the first diners there. I'm sure they are used to much better dressed patrons, but they let us in anyway. We laughed about our unexpected activity and ordered a glass of wine and classic Italian food. Dinner was great! We walked home from there. My Fitbit says I've walked 14,088 steps today. Another great end to another great day in the city!

Ravioli Con Funghi Porcini