I crossed the river but didn't die of dysentery

Day 3 in NYC's experience is walking the city. It's a great (albeit tiring) way to see the city and get a better feel for it.

After taking the subway from Astoria down to the Battery I walked around the coast line and had a brief moment of "What would my life be like if I had moved here right after college like I always imagined I would in high school?" It wasn't a sad moment just one of those million possibilities kind of reflections.

An awesome urban community garden plot on the Battery

My dear friend Ginger (who I grew up with and have followed each other basically everywhere till graduating from college) and I always sort of dreamed of moving from bumblefuck to the biggest city we could imagine and what it would be like to be artists/actors/musicians/bohemians/servers/bartenders/badasses in NYC. We visited in high school and it was the last time I saw the Statue of Liberty. I've been back to NYC since but it was foggy and she was just a dark blurry shadow every time. This time the sky was clear and I could see her. Even though I live in DC where I see impressive monuments all the time (and they still have an effect on me even two years later now and again) this time it made me stop and have a nice little moment.

Not the best view of her for sure but this is the exact moment I had my "What if" pause.

I followed my iPhone map (it's a phone too?) to the Brooklyn Bridge. I wandered past Wall Street and then found the pedestrian entrance to the bridge. It was actually a pretty nice walk. Pretty crowded but everybody was pretty easy going. It's a great view of the skyline and it finally helped solidify exactly where the hell Brooklyn is in my mental map of NYC. After picking the absolutely wrong turn (that leads down to Fulton Street, the shopping district in Brooklyn, via an extremely long and impossible to escape path down the middle of the street) I jumped on the subway and went to Central Park.

What's good for Wall Street is good for main street...right?

The bridge walk begins

Great view of the sky line

Obligatory self shot to prove I was there. See! I didn't just steal all these pictures.

Central park is a strange combo of huge empty fairly boring spaces and beautifully manicured and interesting gardens. It's so big and daunting...I've been before and thought I'd seen all of it but clearly that's not the case because I hardly even recognized anything. Wandering past the turtle pond, the Shakespeare garden and all the other areas was a great close to my trip. I had no idea where I was going but just enjoyed the process of exploring. I think if I lived in NYC I'd take my days off and just wander like this a lot (at least to start). You get more mental map (clearly this is important to me since I can't stop talking about it), you get time to reflect on what's going on and you get some pretty amazing people watching.

I'm a sucker for pathways with trees rounded over them like this. I will take a picture every damn time even though they ALL look the same. This one is pretty quality though.

A little pavilion area near the row boat docks.

I've got to do this but I wasn't about to be that lame guy rowing a boat by himself.

I dare you to look at this bench and tell me New York isn't romantic. Seriously. You sit in this bench with somebody and you're getting married. Done deal.

While I hadn't reached my fill of Central Park, I had reached my limit for walking. My feet and calves were starting to tighten to a level I couldn't ignore anymore so I decided it was time to plant somewhere. I hopped in a cab and made my way to the West Village to crash at a coffee shop on Gay street and see the landmark Stonewall Inn and the memorial.

After work my friend Will came out to meet me for dinner but not before I drug him along to "The Pleasure Palace" to purchase a new accouterment or 3. (On a completely unrelated topic there are no more photos in this article.) Will is clearly a pretty good sport.

After this round I've decided that I could definitely live in NYC and I'd probably enjoy it a lot. The fear of not having my space is mostly dissipated and I think the trade offs would be worth it, if only for a while. Now it's just a matter of when does it make sense or does it ever?