A Walk up Broadway in Lower Manhattan

75 Varick Street at Canal - where I go to work at my client's site















God I love New York. I don’t know how I’m ever going to be able to leave this fabulous city. Every time I go exploring by foot anywhere in Manhattan, I fall in love with this place all over again.

Today I was on a mission to get t-shirts and other souvenirs to take with me on my Thanksgiving trip next week. My best friend from my college/Domino's Pizza days, Tracy, lives with her family in Salem, Virginia. I love Tracy to death. Every few years I go visit. When she called last night and asked me to come down for Turkey Day, I said I doubted I could get an airline ticket for under a thousand bucks, but I’d see what I could find.

I hung up and logged on to Ex-pedia.com. What do you know - there was a ticket on Delta for just $276! I actually got the last seat available on the outbound flight from La Guardia to Roanoke. (And it’s a middle seat. Only one time in my life have I ever sat in the middle seat on an airplane. It’s claustrophobic. My sitting in a middle seat for an entire flight is evidence of just how much I love Tracy.) :)

My journey today was an A-train ride down to Canal Street, where hordes of Saturday shoppers flock to buy knock-off Rolexes, Gucci watches, Cocoa Chanel purses, designer sunglasses, illegal DVDs, and much, much more. I got a good deal on t-shirts for my new niece Katie and for Tracy’s kids, who happen to be the same age as my sister’s two kids, so I think I got the sizes right.

Then I trekked up Broadway. I walked through Soho, helping some tourists with directions. "Soho" is short for "South of Houston Street." (And Houston is pronounced HOW-ston, not like the Texas city housing the Astrodome.) A man and his wife were arguing about whether they were going north or south. I turned and pointed, saying, “This is north. See – there’s the Chrysler Building.” Then I continued in the other direction. A half a block later I thought, "Wait a sec - that's the way I wanted to be going, too." Good thing the tourists were there because had I not stopped to correct the wife about which way was north, I wouldn't have realized that I was walking in the wrong direction too! I don't know why I always get turned around when I get off at Canal.

I couldn't resist shopping at The Pearl River Mart – I love that store! I wanted to get a present for my cute three-year-old niece Maddie for giving up her pacifier to her new baby sister Katie. I got her the cutest little purple Chinese outfit that I'd seen there before. I finally went to the cash register when I couldn't carry anything else in my arms.

After that I continued north on Broadway. I didn’t know there was a Bloomingdale’s in Soho! It was a neat store - brick walls, high glass ceilings. I tried on some expensive perfume and gawked at price tags before I continued north on Broadway into Noho. This area of town has some great shopping. It’s just one store after another all the way up Broadway.

I was overdue for some sneakers, so I did a little shoe shopping at Lady Foot Locker. $120+ later I had a pair of new Saucony’s that are designed to compensate for over-pronation. I’ve been looking for the right shoes for several months, so I hope these work out. I can’t afford to come down with any painful plantar facsiitis – otherwise known as severe heel pain – not while I’m living in New York and walking everywhere.

As I continued north (with my shopping load getting heavier) I realized that I’d never really walked through East Village before. What a neat area – I’d love to live there. Lots of shops and restaurants and nice people. Finally, I ended up at Union Square, which is a huge park that has had a farmer’s market going on each time I’ve been there. It's one of my favorite places to go.

And it's where I experienced yet another New York first. Until today, I’d never tasted a real Concord grape before. Talk about GOOD! Now I know where the flavor called "grape" really comes from – like Jolly Rancher grape or Tootsie Pop grape. It’s not from green grapes or red grapes. It’s from these yummy, sweet, deep purply-blue, perfectly spherical Concord grapes. I bought five dollars’ worth.
It was time to go home. After buying some fresh apples and red potatoes too, my arms were heavy with bags. But first, I needed to stop in at Petco so that my sweet boy Martin could also get a special treat tonight. After that, I couldn't carry one more thing. I walked back through Union Square to the subway. I’d been on my feet a few hours at that point and wanted nothing more than to go home and take a load off. Luckily, the R train showed up as soon as I stepped onto the platform. I was exhausted.

I don’t want to leave NY! I spent three long, hard weeks house-hunting in Brooklyn - which was essentially a full-time job. I was all set to buy a condo in a converted warehouse in Cobble Hill, which is a wonderful brownstone, tree-lined area of Brooklyn. But the deal fell through just a few days ago – for the second time. It was really more than I could take, after all I'd already been through with the whole buying process.

Buying New York real estate is a nightmare – definitely not for the faint of heart. It requires extreme patience and lots of work on your own to find the property, because there is no such thing as a Multiple Listing Service here. That, and if you don’t mind having your entire future hanging in the balance for days or weeks on end. . . waiting for a sales contract to be drawn up long after your offer is accepted by the seller, you’ll be better prepared for the nightmare called buying property in NYC.

I will tell that story in another blog entry! Happy Thanksgiving everyone!