Quote of the Week...from David Bowie

I realized the other day that I've lived in New York longer than I've lived anywhere else. It's amazing: I am a New Yorker. It's strange; I never thought I would be.              ---David Bowie

No doubt about it: there's something quite special about New York City.  Being by my nature something of a homebody, I admit to not being very enthusiastic when Melissa and I planned a brief trip to Midtown Manhattan along with our daughter Rebecca back in 2010...but my experience there left a lasting impression on me and, more than any other place that I've only been for four days, I still have a sense of "home" about it.  Here are links to my blog articles pertaining to that visit, written over the span of a couple of months after we returned:

Visited NYC, Back Today
My Running Experience in NYC
Junior's Restaurant Near Times Square
Manhattan's Transformation
Pedestrians Rule in Manhattan
Where Have All the Alleys Gone?
Drinking Starbucks on the Hudson, Going to Work in Brooklyn
NYC Museum Rush
My Circle Lines Harbor Lights Experience
Attempted Bomb Attack Near Times Square
Chinatown and Little Italy
Bigapplophobia Revisited
Visit to World Trade Center Site
NYC: The "Hands Out" City
My Gray Line Tours Experience in Manhattan
Central Park
Scents and the City
The Manhattan Experience: Streets vs. Buildings

I believe that a lot of folks, not just celebrity musicians like David Bowie or John Lennon (or the lesser known but very talented and accomplished Regina Spektor and Sufjan Stevens), have felt a kind of attraction toward the Big Apple and a reluctance to leave it.  Especially on the island of Manhattan, destinations are often within close walking distance...I once superimposed a street map of Manhattan on my own subdivision in Gainesville with our hotel there centered over my house: important places from Rockefeller Center to Madison Square Garden would still be "in" our neighborhood.  And whenever I read books set in New York, I find myself mentally walking in the same places as the characters.  Last night there was a hockey playoff game at Madison Square Garden between the New York Rangers and the Ottawa Senators: guess who I rooted for as my "home" team? 

I'd like to go back to New York sometime in the not-to-distant future.  Back in 2010, the new World Trade Center tower was under construction and hidden from view behind fencing...next time we're definitely going up to the top!  We also missed out back then on many other experiences, in particular the subway system...the time constraints of our visit in 2010 limited what we could do.  But from time to time I'd like to touch base with this incredible city and not go for so long between visits...