Friday Over the Brooklyn Bridge

Well, today was a bit busier than yesterday, when I got dressed, went out and walked about three blocks before the sunshine and terrible heat beat me down and I went home to nap all afternoon and then early to bed.

I slept in pretty late, then got dressed and headed out with my camera.

She's there, a faint shadow almost
perfectly centered in the photo.

My first stop was Sunset Park a few blocks from my apartment where I sat on a bench for a while and took some photos.  Unfortunately, it was foggy in the distance, so I can't actually make out the Statue of Liberty in any of the pictures from there.  I could see it with my eyes, but none of the photos have enough contrast to see it.

The park was pretty crowded with lots of families with children, and middle aged people running in circles around the park on the paved pathways.  Lots of pigeons, too.  At one point a flock of a hundred or so all landed on the ground around me, then something (not me!) spooked them and they all took off at once.  It was weird being in the middle of the flock, I could feel the wind and the beat of their wings as they flapped to get into the air at the same time.

After I'd cooled off from that walk, since it was two blocks uphill, then a few blocks across, I headed out again.  I walked a few more blocks to get the subway at 36th Street, which I took up to DeKalb Avenue, one stop past where I usually get off on my way to work.  At DeKalb Avenue I read the map to see which general direction I had to go for the Brooklyn Bridge.

It took some wandering around to actually find the pedestrian access to it.  Or maybe I just took one wrong turn first...  On the sidewalk I bought a pretzel and a bottle of water from a vendor, who seemed taken aback that I wanted a water bottle from the display instead of an ice cold one, then I found a seat near the beginning of the bridge to sit down and eat it.

Once I finished I took out my camera and took lots of photos while walking across into Manhattan.  Lots of others, too, were stopping everywhere to take pictures.  One downside is there was construction or repairs going on, so lots of posts were sticking up, obstructing the view in one direction, and a whole wall in the other.  Then, between the towers, the walkway view was blocked on both sides by temporary walls put up for the construction.

I liked the various patterns of the cables suspending the roadway when viewed from in between them on both sides.  That was cool...

Over in Manhattan I wandered around the area a little, by City Hall, then took the R train under Broadway up to 42nd Street and wandered around Times Square for a while.

It was busy and crowded around there, so many people, and the sun was shining almost perfectly up the Broadway from the south so it was very hot.  I didn't see much that struck my interest in terms of taking photos, so no pictures there.

I stopped in at a T.G.I. Friday's for a hamburger, which turned out not bad, but extremely overpriced ($17 for a simple hamburger!)  It wasn't on the menu, I had to ask for it, but everything else in that price range on the menu was so much fancier I didn't realize a plain hamburger could be the same.  Now I know...

After lunch I was cooled off a bit again and went back out.  The service was kind of slow, so by the time I hit the street again the sun had swung around a bit and wasn't blazing to bad, with the buildings providing more shadows.

I didn't really know what to do, it seemed too early to head home to Brooklyn, but my clothes were soaked through with sweat and rubbing my skin uncomfortably.  So, I walked a little way down Broadway, down to Herald Square, stopped at a table there and wrote in my journal for a few minutes, then took the subway back to Brooklyn.

Back home I took a nice, hot shower, then a nap for a couple of hours, only to be woken up by the Good Humor man...

Later in the evening the Good Humor man's truck broke down in front of the apartment and another one came to give him a jump start.  They parked in parallel, blocking traffic and it took long enough for cars to back up all the way to 4th Avenue (okay, that might only be four or five car lengths) with drivers honking and people yelling "hey, fuck you man!" over and over...  Quite a disturbance.  Hopefully soon enough the weather will cool off and there won't be the Good Humor ice cream trucks driving around (although personally I feel sub freezing weather is the ideal weather for ice cream, as you can eat it slowly and not have to rush because it's melting...)