Summer Scenes 2012: Commuting Views Part 2

Since trying to persuade my HR department to get me a treadmill desk is proving to be a futile effort, I've been forcing myself to skip the convenience of a subway commute home from work to the train terminal. I've been walking the approximately 2 miles instead. I've also been trying to find the least annoying crosstown streets to avoid the tourist traps of Central Park South (with it's connection to Columbus Circle and the Park and the Apple Store/FAO Schwartz cesspool of cacophony), 57th Street's busy Carnegie Hall connection, and anything in the Time Square Section with the theaters, hotels, and retail madness. Along the way I've used my iTouch not only to provide the musical accompaniment, but to try and capture some of the sights along the way.

Here are highlights some of the recent perambulations.

Some nights, I start out with a nice refreshing spray from the fountain at Lincoln Center. The other night it was festooned with mini-Fonteyns posing for pictures.

Even with the iTouch camera, it was good to catch some rays through the mists. Further down the street, the saints at Fordham sought guidance in a shady grove.

Further south, whispers say to "Look up! Look up. There's so much to see above your regular view."

Some days the walk is easier than others. It all depends on other commuters, tourists, air quality conditions, and traffic. If I get too tired one day, I could grab a "winged" chariot to get me on my way. If only I could leap over traffic (or slow tourist) as demonstrated by an art installation on Park Avenue.

Avenue 6 1/2 is not like Platform 9 3/4s. It does not lead to Hogwarts, or save me from more hunger distractions. Get thee behind me pizza signs. I'm walking for a reason!

On the other hand, I have to remember where this truck was. I seriously want a lobster roll now. I can't get to the shore for seafood, so what are the odds of getting food poisoning from seafood stored in, and served, from a hot food truck? [Alternatively, weight loss from food poisoning? Not worth the puking.]

Some days the weirdest things happen. Like impromptu pedicab races coming out of Central Park. It's neck and neck down the avenue. Flash photo finish, but whoops. More distractions. I don't know who won. (I want one of everything. Note to self, skip Central Park South. Too many ice cream trucks.)

There are flying rats everywhere in NYC. I don't know why this light pole caught my attention, aside from the fact that it shows that real estate is at a premium even for the avian population. On the right: Who needs Instagram filters when Mother Nature do the light shows so much better highlighting the City's Ivory Towers?

Reflecting on the next step of my journey and remembering to stop and read the signs. (Grammarian Girl in my head started playing with this. AKA Be Cool, right? or Be. Cool. Write. or Write. Be Cool.)

Ah, finally. My destination. Air Conditioning. Places to purchase water since I forgot mine. Again. Looking up from the escalators -- It's not just the zodiac ceiling in Grand Central that is truly grand.

Once on the train and out of the tunnels, I'm ever so grateful to not be in traffic heading into Queens, but heading over the river and through the 'hoods.

Work day over, leaving Manhattan -- miles closer to home.
Another day done.

Stay tuned for more. Just have to remember to take more on future commutes.

Summer 2012: Island Hopping, Part 1

Over the last few summers I've made plans to visit places in New York that I hadn't visited before. I've still only completed those plans to varying degrees of success, as there's almost too much to see in the City, and I have too much going on.

So this year, I decided to make thematic plans instead. Rather than make plans for a road trip, head to a show, or take an exotic vacation, I thought I'd go island-hopping this summer instead.

What do I mean?

Well, Manhattan is an island. I work on Manhattan. But for all the many years that I've lived in New York State and now worked in New York City, I've never been to many of the islands that surround it, including:

Staten ** Ellis ** Governors ** City ** Randall's **Roosevelt

Well you get the idea. Throw in the fact that I've never been to Coney Island, and I have a plan.

Instead of a glorious multi-state RoadTrip, this year I'm going Island Hopping -- all within commuting distance of my back stoop!

I'm doing the research, getting my shoes broken in, my blisters converted to calluses, making sure I have camera batteries, and a traveling buddy ... and so my first island destination of summer 2012 was a ....

TRAFFIC ISLAND!

Oh hush. Look, I know it could be called a rotary, a round-about, a traffic circle, or whatever.... But is there, or is there not, an island in the middle of that roadway? Yes. There is.

To some people a rotary, round-about, traffic circle, traffic island, what have you, is a scarey, intimidating, bizarre destination that needs careful navigating. This one, in Mount Vernon, NY, is near a gateway to an exotic, foreign land. Parts of it certainly were for me ... Once visited, never to return -- even with a native guide.

Stay tuned.