American Tourister

So on Friday, I went back to the city.  This time, tho, I left my place AFTER Rush Hour.

I hopped on a "hop-on, hop-off bus" in Midtown Manhattan and saw some places I've seen many times before, but also some places I've never seen YET. . . .

I hopped on the L.I.R.R. in Bethpage. . . .

 Oops. Wrong way, Corrigan!

Headed west, but not quite as far west as the ad above "suggested". . . .

I was thinking of The West, tho, when I saw this ad and thought "Hey, putting a zip-line on the trees in Redwood Park up in the Oakland Hills would be a lot of fun!"  More fun than a zip-line on some stunted little Pine Barren trees on Long Island.

Anywhooo. . . .  Here, in no particular order is what I saw in the city, most of it from the top deck of a sightseeing bus. . . .

The General Sherman Monument at the southwest corner of Central Park. . . .

Christopher Columbus still standing guard over Columbus Circle nearby. . . .

Carnegie Hall.  Welllll. . . .  I asked someone how to get to Carnegie Hall and this is where they sent me.  I need to practice asking for directions better, I guess.  Actually this was the spot where I "hopped on" the tour bus.

The M&M store in Times Square!  Teddy and Charlie would have a BLAST at this place.  I've been teaching them colors, using M&Ms as motivation.  Teddy was still calling every single one I pulled out of the packet "BLUE!" in his enthusiastic manner when I left Alameda.  I hope he will have progressed a bit by the time I get back home.

Another Teddy astride a steed. . . .

. . . .outside of "his" museum, the Museum of Natural History.

Cathedral of St. John the Divine.  It is humongeous.   Too big to even fit all of it into one photo from so close up.

 

It's Showtime. . . .  at The Apollo!  In Harlem.  I expected it to look a lot more glitzy.  No need for it to, tho, in that it is so well-known.

The Guggenheim Museum of Modern Art.  (My sis-in-law Liz says a lot of people think it looks like a toilet bowl.)

I decided to get off the bus at the Goog and go in and have a look around.  If not for the art, at least to see the architecture of this kinda odd building.

This is a 360 degree "wraparound" panorama  of the inside that I took while I was standing in the middle of the ground floor:

Here's looking straight up from the center of the ground floor:

Some familiar-looking works.  95% of the art there is "post-modern" and I was unimpressed by it for the most part.  The stuff by Monet, Degas, and Seurat caught my eye, tho. . . .

Climbing up the circular "ramp". . . .

Another photo of the top, but this time from the top of the circular ramp:

Looking across, from near the top:

Good old Frank Lloyd Wright. . . . .  Hmmm.  THIS building is definitely one of his most interesting ones.

Back on the bus, we passed the Metropolitan Museum of Art. . . .  I didn't go in because I've been there many, many times.  I like the art THERE. . . .  because it is a bit more like what I think of as art, AND because it has so many historical works of art. 

I learned FAST why they don't want passengers to stand up. Even sitting, the traffic lights passed only about six inches above me!

While waiting for a bus transfer on 59th Street I saw a traffic jam, of a sort, in Central Park. . . .

Here's another pic of the M&Ms store, looking down the side-street it is on. . . .

Should auld acquaintance be forgot. . . .  Just in case you forgot what YEAR this is. . . . 

Continuing south, another 20 blocks or so.  "23 Skidoo". . . .  There's a story behind that old 1920's era expression, having to do with this building. . . . .

. . . .which is located just across Madison Square Park from THESE buildings, both of which I worked at during the 1970s and 1980s.

It's The Flatiron Building, on 23rd Street. They say that cops were constantly chasing "Girl Watchers" away from nearby it, shouting the expression "Skidoo!" at the fellas.  The guys hung out there because the wind in the area around the building caused some *ahem* "billowing." 

A postcard from 'back in the day.'  Take note of what it says in lower right. The guy is apparently enjoying "sightseeing" in New York.

I, being a POLITE New Yorker, never hung out at the sidewalk over that way.  My buddy and I walked around the PARK on our lunch-hour. I swear.

Anyways. . . .  Another view of the OLD Met Life buildings. . . .

A photo of 34th Street with The Empire State Building down it a bit. . . .

The swanky Plaza Hotel at corner of 5th Avenue and Central Park South. . . .

At which point I asked the bus's Tour Guide "Hey, where's Central Perk?"  And she said "I get asked that question a LOT." Ain't no such place.

 So, continuing even farther south. . . .  There's this "twisted" apartment building downtown near City Hall.  It was only built in the past few years, and according to the Tour Guide is one of the tallest apartment buildings in the world.

Turning around, and coming back towards midtown via West Street, this hits you square in the face!

And so ended Friday's tour. EXCEPT for one more interesting thing.  As our bus was on its way back to midtown someone looked up at the sky and saw first THIS:

 I thought it was "INA" with a heart. Some said it maybe was "TINA" and that the T had "washed away already, but looking up and following the solo plane doing the skywriting, we saw

M

 ARRY

 

 ME?

So I figure that thousands of gals named TINA or INA in Manhattan that day phoned their boyfriends to shout YES, YES. . . and hopefully, for the guy who actually PAID the pilot, his "intended" did TOO.

The End.  Or not, as the case may be. . . .