NYC 01: Views of the Apple

New York City trip with myself (Parker Lasseigne) and Richard Martinez from the 24th through the 30th of August in 2015.  Was the first vacation in some years that I’ve taken, and it proved to be one of my favorites!  New York City, as I’m sure many will agree, is a place that needs many weeks, months, if not years to see.  We just had a week, so we made sure to make the best of it.  Lots and lots and lots of walking;  feet were starting to hurt on day two…. but had to make nice with the pain and just continue on.  Too much to see to ever slow down.  Flew into the city with Jet Blue without having to make any connections.  Jumped on the E train taking us right to our hotel, the Pod 51 at 51st and 3rd Ave.  I cursed my luggage a few times, which had taken a toll on my back, got the cameras ready and we were off!  I foolishly planned this trip to not be about photography, but to just be a tourist and enjoy the sights and the city.  That plan lasted about 32 minutes at most.  The city turned out to be even more photogenic then I thought.  Luckily for all you slice lovers, the camera pretty much stayed on…

The photos in these slices are not going to be presented in date order.  We actually doubled back and returned to certain spots on several occasions, usually for the purpose of getting day and night shots of certain areas.  If presented in date order, I think the whole thing would come across too erratically.  So please sit back and enjoy 10 slices of New York!

First stop will be the Empire State Building.  We made this the first stop on our second day (Tuesday the 25th).  We went right at opening time to avoid the normally long lines.  Got there about 8:30 that morning and made it up pretty quickly.  Seeing the view for the first time was pretty dang impressive, so much so that we returned here later that night for some evening shots… and to just enjoy the beautiful sights some more.

Next up will be the ‘Top of the Rock’ observatory on the top of the Rockefeller Center.  We went here on Thursday the 27th.  The plan was to get there around midday to snap some daytime shots, and then just stay for sunset and evening as well.  We got there around 5:30 and promply learned our lesson as to why to avoid these places in the middle of the day… Line was pretty sizable and it probably wasn’t until close to 6:30 that we were actually up there.  Was packed up there, but the view made up for it all!  Was glad to spend the rest of the day up there.

And finally we have the Brooklyn Bridge, along with the Brooklyn Bridge Park and the Brooklyn Heights Promenade, all of which are in walking distance of each other.  This was the afternoon and evening of Friday the 28th.  This part of the slice actually consists of an embarrassing mistake on my part.  We headed out to this area because I was trying to find the famous location used in Woody Allen’s ‘Manhattan’, the image that is usually used on all the posters.  And as I found out while walking around the area, this was not the place…  Great views of the city, just not the one I was looking for.  Oh well, it was still a really great spot, and I was glad to get to walk along the Brooklyn Bridge itself.