This week’s picture and a word challenge from Patrick Jennings’ Pix to Words blog is dealing with motion.
I think my pic proves that New York City never sleeps, the words, well, they may put you to sleep.
Motion
The restless city she never sleeps
Ever moving with shouts and beeps
Man nor machine never stopping to sleep
Sounds of their moving makes their heartbeat
The one thing that proved itself to me, as much as I express its importance, is the amount of kindness we found when in New York City. It really matters not how large or how small the area or situation is, you can always be kind.
I enjoyed the post from woollymuses about interesting buildings. When my daughter and I went to New York City in February, we saw many interesting buildings. I have shared some of them off and on but not together so I thought I would do that even if sharing some pictures more than once.
It was amazing to me the mixture of very old buildings along with new modern buildings all throughout the city.
Besides the amazing churches we saw, there were two building in particular that made me do a double look. One was the Oculus Building that was built at the World Trade Center after 9/11 disaster.
The inside is just as amazing.
Another building that I have no clue what its name is or what it is used for we saw from a distance but it made me stop for a picture.
It looks like the game of Jenga. But you can see in this picture a mixture of old and new. New York City, ever-changing. The Chrysler building is an amazing building and to me more interesting that the Empire State Building, which we did not get a chance to see. The new 1 World Trade Center is impressive and thought provoking as well for why it was built because of the unneeded disaster. Over 2000 lives lost.
Chrysler Building9/11 Memorial Fountain with 1 World Trade Center in the background
But we need to remember that buildings don’t last forever but love and kindness do. They get carried with us to our eternal home. So make an extra effort to always be kind. Kindness opens many doors to many situations.
For the last couple of weeks, I have been sharing my pictures of my trip to New York City. The museums are magnificent with amazing statues but THE statue is the lady on the water.
We knew that we didn’t want to go to Ellis Island because you could see the full statue better from the Staten Island Ferry. These ferries constantly moved from the city to Staten Island and back which I understood to be where a lot of people in the area lived that worked in NYC.
The views from the ferry were exceptional. You could see New York’s amazing skyline from a distance plus the skyline of Staten Island.
New York CityStaten Island
And there is always something in the air…
Our trip was wonderful with dreams to go back and see other things. If you are interested in New York City, do your research for the things you want to see and map out your visit to maximize your time to get to see it all. And don’t forget the pizza or the cheesecake.
Those of you who travel, have seen a lot of different things, and can sometimes be bored by museums and stuff…for me, I could go back and spend the entire day at The Met. The Museum of Modern Art was nice and we went to see the three paintings we wanted to see. Because we were on a tight schedule to make sure we got to see the “Must see” items, we were limited by time for each museum.
For MoMA, Museum of Modern Art, the goal was Starry Night by Vincent Van Gough.
Starry Night by Vincent Van Gough, painted 1889
But while there found others close by that we also wanted to see.
The Persistence of Memory by Salvador Dali, 1931
What surprised me about both of these painting was how small they were. Not that that was a distraction but compared to Claude Monets Water-Lilies, which covered an entire wall(a big wall), the size contrast were surprising.
One panel of Claude Monet’s Water Lilies, Painted 1914-1926
This is why art is subjective to each individual but amazing to all regardless. When we went to The Met, we each had a must see item. To my daughter it was the Egyptian exhibit and to me it was the armor room with life size horses in their armored shields. I don’t know how they even moved. And the weight, good grief.
Same thought goes with the Knights in shining armor, how in the world did they move. And I can’t imagine how hot they were.
Love this guy with his boots and spurs.
While the armor was confined in a large expansive room, the Egyptian exhibit was several rooms, including a life size replica of a temple.
This sarcophagus was empty but the inside lid was carved.
Museums are not just amazing things to see from an artist’s mind, but the history they tech us is well worth exploring them. We hope to go back and just do a museum run so that we can explore more there.
If you go see the sights of any city, remember to be respectful and kind. I was taken back by the kindness we found in a huge city of New York and having spent most of my young adult life in Atlanta, this was surprising. Maybe the tragedy of 9/11 reminded all of us of the power and purpose of kindness.
Our trip was a fast 4 day adventure taking us from one end of the island to the other. While there, we saw many beautiful, amazing, and a few sad sights. Below are a few of the miscellaneous sights we saw that we enjoyed.
Carnegie Hall. What a beautiful way to dress up an ordinary brick building with painted-on windows.
The front of Carnegie was being worked on so scaffolding hid the front entrance.
Every city has homeless people but I admired the gentle spirit of this one as he shared what he had with the birds and they adored him for it.
“Who you gonna Call?” Ghost Busters! The firehouse used in the iconic movie Ghost Busters is an actual working fire station in New York City and they are good hearted enough to allow crazy fans…like me…to take photos of them and their station.
F A O Swartz…oh, what a store. I could spend hours there, after all, I am just a big kid. Loved the zebra but don’t think he would fit on the plane.
Who doesn’t love animated farm animals?
If you are going to go to NYC, you have to try New York cheesecake and New York Style Pizza. One slice of pizza is a meal!
And the reviews were not wrong. It was the best Pizza I have ever had.
The beauty in the mixture of old architecture and new showed the life of a city that is ever growing.
High End apartments on 5th Ave were something to see.Because of my background, the Chrysler Building was a favorite.Taking an old church and repurposing it for the community
Then you had the opulence of 5th Avenue. A bit too much for my taste.
Sax of 5thAlmost gaudy door topper and statue.
Then the night scenes around Times Square.
Or daytime…
New York City is so diverse, that everyone can find something they enjoy. I came away with an understanding that I did not expect to find and I mentioned it in one of my other post. As a whole, the residents of NYC are kind proving how easy kindness can be shared. Always remember the beauty of kindness.
I think it is fitting that I start my ‘tour’ of New York City for you with Grand Central Station, a huge hub of transportation for the entire area. My pictures do not really do it justice so, for more amazing views with a real camera and wide-angle lens, go to the web to get the panoramic shots. But this will give you a taste.
The original train station was designed by Cornelius Vanderbilt in 1871. There were several reconstruction projects after that due to rapid growth and in 1897 it reached its capacity again serving 11.5 million passengers a year. In 1913 it was redesigned by Stem & Warren and Warren & Westmore to its current view. Today a train stops every 58 seconds with 1,200 people getting on or off and there are over 100 tracks. Then of course you have the subway lines and the bus lines. It’s a very busy place.
But this is not just a transportation station, while we did not go there, there is a dining area that goes from fast food to elegant food. My favorite part was of course the architecture and the famous ceiling with the zodiac star path on an aqua-blue background.
The architecture outside of the world’s largest Tiffany Clock is a true wonder to see.
Below are some of the other shots I took that you may enjoy. Make sure if you visit New York that you visit Grand Central Station.
It is encouraging, and sad at the same time, that we have to have military guys with the big guns to assure everyone is safe…or behaves.
All through the magnificent buildings in New York that were built in the 1800s, their architecture designs are amazing and made with granite and marble. All through this journey of my trip, I will share the intricate designs that the new architecture does not have. The have a different type of beauty that is wonderful to see, just different.
I will say this, as I have lived in a major city and understand how the people can sometimes be. The people in New York, the resident that we encountered, were amazingly kind and considerate. So, it shows that it doesn’t matter how big or small you town may be, you can always be kind.
For the Love of 