Exploring Chelsea & The High Line

Got to indulge in one of my favorite pastimes today...wandering around exploring a city. Time to just go wherever my feet take me, finding little treasures to take pictures of. Today, New York. Bliss, right?

Started out on Columbus Avenue only to be greeted by this group of exuberant poetry wielding kids...who could possibly pass up Free Poetry? My gift, this:

Jellybeans Up Your Nose

Johnny stuck jellybeans up his nose,
That’s a pretty dumb thing to do.
But the other kids said, “Hey Johnny’s real cool!
Let’s put beans in our noses too.”

Well, a kid can’t breathe with beans up his nose,
‘Cause they get all stuck inside.
So Johnny and the kids, well, I hate to say it,
But they coughed and they choked and they died.

That’s a pretty grim tale, I must admit,
And it may not all be true.
Still when somebody cool does something dumb.
You don’t have to do it too.

Columbus Avenue Poets

With some welcome assistance from my favorite book in a box, City Walks New York, I set off for the High Line. I wanted to take this walk last summer but never made it; this time it was first on my list. Free time? High Line. If you don't know about the High Line, it's a public park project sailing above the streets on Manhattan's West Side, seemingly magically built on an historic freight rail line. You get gorgeous perennial beds, benches, views into penthouse apartments and garbage cans, and so many people happy to be out on a gorgeous day, smiling.

High Line Entrance, 23rd Street

Many groups of school children on field trips, but these two little girls holding hands were the highlight. They walked along, arms swinging in unison, singing "I just wanna feel this moment, whoa, whoa, whoa" in the sweetest little voices.

Feeling the moment.

So much to take in.

Sit a spell.

Rail tracks gone perennial.

The view up wasn't bad either.

Al Anatsui, Broken Bridge II

Next, The Meatpacking District and Chelsea. Lunch on the shaded patio at The Park, with my Kindle. A little slice of Nirvana. And tuna.

It wouldn't be New York without models. Felt right at home, watching these two beauties teetering in their sky high heels, on cobblestones!

Then, The Chelsea Market.

And swoonworthy Chelsea streets.

Finished up with public art and, of course, a dog hanging out under a restaurant patio table. Because what is New York, or anywhere for that matter, without dogs?

What a treat this day was.