PNW Flower & Garden Show 2006

New York 2003

Just after my Paris Chelsea Tour in May 2003, I flew to New York to meet with Tom while he was there doing a trade show. We were there until the end of May. Unfortunately it rained a lot while there, but that didn’t stop us. This was the first time I had visited NY and wanted to see a few things that were important to me to visit.

We stayed in a wonderful hotel called the Warwick. We were on the 33rd floor and had a corner room which gave us great views of both 54th street and Avenue of the Americas.

Our first day out was a walk through a bit of the city heading towards Central Park. The buggies were everywhere. This year is the 150th anniversary of Central Park so this is a park that has seen many changes and grown to become a beautiful place to walk and enjoy the trees and plantings. In the park there is the Central Park Conservancy garden run by the Central Park Conservancy. Their mission is to restore, manage and preserve Central Park, in partnership with the public, for the enjoyment of present and future generations. There is a picture there of a sign that you can read for more information. We enjoyed walking around the six acre formal gardens. NY is proud of this park and the people use it from everything to jogging to just sitting and listening to the birds.




Next we were off to the New York Botanical Gardens – a National Historic Landmark and a garden that you must see when visiting. It houses the country’s largest Victorian crystal palace and was a joy to visit. Filled with unusual tropical and desert plants, and just outside the doors, the Museum of Modern Art had sculpture around the water gardens…just a delight to visit! Some pieces of artwork I took pictures of: Pablo Picasso, She-Goat 1950 Auguste Rodin, Monument to Balzac 1897-98 Aristide Maillol, The River 1943 Auguste Rodin, St. John the Baptist Preaching 1878-80 There is a beautiful building with a fountain in front of it (also a close-up of the fountain) that houses the Ross Lecture Hall and Mertz Library. The walkway up to this building is lined on both sides with the Tulip Tree. The train you see is the one we took from the NYBG to Central Station.










The following pictures are self explanatory, and as we approached this area could only feel a sense of sadness. No one spoke, just looked at the site and looked at the pictures and notes. I had the same feeling when we visited the memorial in Washington D.C. A profound sense of sadness and silence.






The next picture you see is of course the Statue of Liberty on a wet day. Mist and rain, and very quiet walking the streets. This is Battery Park and the only people we met this day were out walking their very wet dogs. Other pictures show parts of the walk along the way to the ferry to take us over. Castle Clinton is where you get your tickets for the ferry and of course there is security to go through, plus the Statue is closed to visitors. We could only walk around her. I was stunned as the size. It does not matter what you see in a picture, seeing it in person is an awesome experience. From there the ferry takes you to Ellis Island and again I was awestruck at the size of this place and the history behind it. The hall is all tiled and the acoustics were incredible. We stood on the second floor balcony in the center and the sounds of our voices carried through. I could only imagine what it must have felt like, being a new arrival to a new country, so tired and apprehensive and excited about a new beginning. London Plane trees are planted everywhere here and were in very good shape. I took a picture of our ferry so you could see what that looked like. As you can see by the pictures, this was our very rainy day, but somehow, I felt it was in keeping with the things that we were visiting.









Other shots include the Sphere (with a sign to read), the U.S. Customs house by Battery Park, an odd shaped building by City Hall (I liked the shape of it), the Bull down by Wall Street, New York Stock Exchange (which has been closed to traffic since 9/11 and has seen 24/7 police security), statue of George Washington in front of the Federal Building, Church, two pictures of Tom’s favourite building, the Federal Reserve (just look at the size of those doors!! and the security is very tight around this area), St Pauls Chapel with its huge memorial, pictures of City Hall Park, a huge black and gold building that people liken to a radiator. The last two pictures are that of Bryant Park, a wonderful respite that sits just behind the Library and where up to 8,000 people a day take advantage of it to have their lunch or just sit. It is run by a private not-for-profit company and just shortly after I got home discovered that the Library will provide rolling trolleys of books that people can ‘borrow’ to read and then return.






The next set of pictures are from the Empire State Building. We had tried the day before but there was zero visibility and thought we would try again as this was our last day here before heading to New Jersey. We were in luck. The two cone shaped pictures are those of the very top of the building. It was a fantastic view, even for someone who is not that comfortable with heights! You could catch glimpses of roof top gardens and since it was also Navy Week, we got a chance to see some ships that were docked.






Next I have some pictures of Rockefeller Center with its beautiful gardens, a hot dog vendors corner (where we had our obligatory NY hot dog), Radio City Music Hall, and a couple of pictures showing the street and avenue from our hotel room. We are now in New Jersey and Tom is at his trade show…I just wanted to include this wonderful little cat car…too cute! Oh, almost forgot to mention that we also made stops at Bloomingdales and Macys for a bit of shopping! Tom found a wonderful little teddy bear (I collect them) with the Macys logo and a rose on it…fitting reminder of a wonderful trip.