Last Entry

Time flies. Its been over two months since I last blogged. Things are going well. With my half share on Fire Island I've only been in the city every other weekend but still have been able to do some fun things like a concert at Lincoln Center, seeing a movie at the Latino Film Festival and attending a concert with my Mom at a beautiful church in my neighborhood.

Now that my weekends in New York are probably like most others, I've decided to make this my last entry.

Thanks for reading over the last few months!

WOW!!!!

This past weekend I took a sailing class at the Manhattan Sailing School. The sailing was amazing. The course started on Friday evening with a 2 hour classroom session. Then on Saturday and Sunday, after a one hour classroom session, we were on the water for about six hours each day. The boats we sailed on were J24s. These are 24 foot racing boats which were relatively easy to rig, very responsive and the clear deck design really impressed me.

But it was the actual sailing that was incredible. This weekend was incredibly windy with gusts on Sunday afternoon exceeding 30 knots. The wave action was a bit rougher than I prefered but it made for some exciting sailing. We sailed out of the harbor which is at the World Financial Center downtown, across the Hudson to Ellis and Liberty Island over to the Battery, around Governours Island, up the Hudson along the Jersey side passing the Lincoln Tunnel back down the Manhattan side with views of 42nd street and Chelsea piers. The views were incredible.

If you have any interest in sailing I highly recommend sailing in New York harbor and taking classes with the Manhattan Sailing School. The instructors were excellent!

Check out photos taken by one of my fellow students.

Weekends #11, 12, 13 and 14

Not too much to write about. Two of these weekends I didn't spend the weekend in New York. I was sick for one and the other was a prearrangement with my landlord (he had friends in from Ireland).

For the other weekends I really didn't do anything special which is probably a good sign that I am becomming a regular New Yorker. I did get out and take some photos. Nothing great but you can check them out on my flickr site.

Next week I will be taking sailing lessons at the Manhattan Sailing School. I love sailing and New York harbor is one of the best places to sail. The views of Manhattan from the water are amazing.

I'm Back! Weekends 8, 9 and 10

Sorry for the delay in writing. Been busy at work but not that busy, so I'm not sure exactly why I haven't been blogging. Here is an update on weekends #8 - 10.

On April 2 I helped out my friend Eliot who is a tour guide (Brooklyn Attitude). I guess you can say I was an assistant tour guide for a noshing tour he was giving to a group of about 40 people from New Jersey. It was the perfect day for it, great weather, sunny but not too hot. We started with Dim Sum in Chinatown (Mandarin Court), headed to Ross and Daughters for pickled herring in a white wine sauce, pizza at Lombardi's, mozzeralla at the Italian Food Center and coffee and dessert at Ferraro's.

The next weekend I only made it into the city late on Saturday and left early afternoon. But I did make it to for drinks with friends at Hop Devil Grill and had a wonderful brunch at Cafe Frida right behind the Museum of Natural History.

This past weekend I had dinner in Park Slope on Friday night and on Saturday made it back to the Bread Bar. Plus I bought new rollerblades and took them for a test run along the Hudson river for about an hour. Amazing difference compared to my 12 year old skates!

Just a quick update, I'll try to write more when I get a chance.

Weekend #7

This weekend I finally made it to another borough of the City of New York! On Saturday morning I got on the #2 subway line and 45 minutes later I was in Park Slope, getting off at the Grand Army Plaza stop. When you exit the subway station to ground level you are welcomed by this fabulous arch celebrating the Union army. I then walked a few blocks to my friend Eliot's apartment, had a cup of tea with him, then walked a bit through Prospect Park and had lunch at a favorite Thai restaurant. This restaurant is on the 2nd floor on the corner of 7th and Carrol and it is across from a beautiful church. I then walked down 7th avenue to about 9th street and then back on 5th avenue to the Atlantic Avenue subway station heading back to Manhattan. Along the way I took some photos and one actually received a 10 of 10 score on Flickr (of course I also received much lower scores too) but here it is. You can see others on my Flickr site. Overall I liked Park Slope but Manhattan is still my first choice to live.

On Saturday evening I met up again with Eliot and he took me to this real authentic speak easy in the West Village called Chumley's. There are no signs whatsoever identifying it as a happening bar and restaurant but once you walk in that is exactly what you find. There is actually a second entrance, just in case the police raid the place!

Weekend #6

As always, more restaurants to report on. My friend Eliot is a tour guide and he is preparing an eating tour so he invited a few of us to join him to check out a Dim Sum place in Chinatown and then afterwards we had coffee and dessert in Little Italy. The Dim Sum place was Mandarin Court on Mott St. I think the consensus among the four of us was the food was good and the price right ($44 total not including tip). But I have to admit I have been spoiled when I was in San Francisco a few years back and had Dim Sum at a place called Yank Sing. I highly recommend that place. Nice decor, good atmosphere and the food was excellent. Ferrara is the name of the place we had coffee and dessert. Not only do they claim to be the oldest esspresso bar in NYC but the oldest in America. My cappacino was good but the St. Joseph zeppoli with cannoli filling was excellent.

One tip I should share. As in most places in Manhattan timing is everything. We met at Mandarin Court at 11:30 and there were plenty of tables available. Within 30 minutes the place was packed and the waiting line long. Same thing at Ferrara's. We again just missed the crowd arriving at about 1:30. In fact it was difficult getting out of the place due to the line of people waiting to get in!

Saturday I spent the day in my neighborhood taking photos and finding new places. A few restaurants that looked interesting enough to try out someday include: Luzias, Cafe Ronda, Rain and New Wave.

I also ran into a Roman Catholic Church, Church of the Blessed Sacrament, on 71st St. Very beautiful both inside and out. I'll be posting some photos on flckr soon. They also have free concerts. The next one is next Sunday at 3 pm and on April 2 at 3 pm the Opera Orchestra of NY is presenting "Souvenirs of OONY's Glorious Past".

For me the real find was the New-York Historical Society. I'm a bit of a history buff so I stepped inside to get some information and found out they have many interesting lectures and events. One I missed but wished I had attended was titled 'We the People: Active Liberty and the American Constitution' with Stephen Breyer (Associate Supreme Court Justice). But 'The Rise of American Democracy: Jefferson to Lincoln' sounds interesting (March 30) as does 'The Supreme Court and the Struggle for Racial Equality" (June 13). Hopefully next week I'll see the exhibit 'Slavery in New York' before it closes next Sunday March 26.

My Photos Online

I like to think of myself as an amateur photographer and have taken quite a few photos during my weekends in New York. I've started to post them to a site called flickr. Check them out.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/34724981@N00/