A (Very Cold) Day Downtown

Before I officially begin the planned substance of this post, I would just like to point out that this is my 100th post! I can't believe I've rambled on about our lives for 100 posts-worth...and even more impressively, you've continued reading. I had no idea how this blogging experiment would turn out, but I am so glad it has come along so well. I really enjoy it, and I love hearing feedback from you and knowing that you're reading it. I hope it helps you feel like you're a part of our everyday lives. It makes me happy to share, both to keep everyone up-to-date with what's happening for us, but also for my own diary-type purposes. So, thanks for sticking with me for this long! I hope you'll continue reading as I continue writing.

Anyway...we had a very fun but very cold day yesterday. We started out with a subway ride downtown to the Brooklyn Bridge. We had been meaning to get down there to walk across the bridge to check it out, to see if it was something cool that should be incorporated into our visitor tours. The verdict: yes, it is.

So, we got down there and started our walk. Honestly, we picked a pretty lousy day to walk across the Brooklyn Bridge. When we left the house at 2:00 in the afternoon, weather.com told us that the current temperature was 22 degrees, but the "feels like" was 15 degrees. That's not a lot of degrees. Especially when you're walking across a bridge. Plus, thanks to the snow-turned-freezing-rain yesterday, the bridge was ICY. Parts were coated with more snow, so not too bad, but other parts were very slick. So it was a bit treacherous. But still very cool! Definitely a fun experience, with great views. Apparently there is also a really great ice cream place on the Brooklyn side of the bridge (although we didn't stop today, we weren't exactly in an ice cream mood after our ice walk), so that will make a nice little afternoon with our out-of-town guests. Who wants to be first?

On the Brooklyn Bridge! Please note, I'm sporting my new rainboots with pink fleece liners from Target. Love me some Target.

Hooray bridge!

Artsy bridge shot

We made it to the middle of the bridge! Yay!

View of Manhattan

Statue of Liberty

Eric and the City

Me and Manhattan

After we walked back over to the Manhattan side of the bridge, we wandered around the area a little more. City Hall is down there, and there's a very nice little park in front of it. Unfortunately, the park was closed, so we couldn't get in. But, we still wandered around and took some pictures of the snowy scenery.

Snowy subway

City Hall

Cool lamp post

There were several of sculptures like this all over the park, and I thought they were cool-looking. To me, they look like dripped candle wax. The colors really stood out against the snow! Apparently it's an exhibition of the work of Robert Melee, on display until April. This one is called "It Alone."

From there, we started walking over towards Wall Street and on our way we ran into South Street Seaport, which is a very cool little area with shops and restaurants right on the water. They had a huge Christmas tree, and while we were there the Big Apple Chorus even gave a performance.

South Street Seaport

South Street Seaport Christmas Tree

Ship at South Street Seaport

The Big Apple Chorus

 

VIDEO: The Big Apple Chorus singing the Beach Boys' "Little St. Nick"

When we left South Street Seaport, we stopped for lunch at Chipotle and took some time to sit and thaw out. It was SO COLD. After we warmed up a bit, we headed back out and finally made our way to Wall Street. As you may recall in my post about my dad's visit, there was a huge Christmas tree in front of the Stock Exchange, and the flag that usually covers the columns on the front of the building had been replaced with Christmas lights to make a flag. Since then we've been wanting to get out there in the evening to see it all lit up. So, we did! Very impressive.

The Christmas Stock Exchange

Close-up of the light flag

Don't freeze, Eric!

From there we walked down to Battery Park to see if there were any other Christmas happenings. Sure enough, we found the Bull to be all Christmas-ed up, and another little holiday market set up. Love those holiday markets!

Eric on Wall Street

The Wall Street Christmas Bull

After Battery Park we had planned to head back uptown to Bryant Park for a little more Christmas shopping at that holiday market, but by this time we had been out in the cold for 4 hours and were just chilled to the bone. So, we called it a day and went on home. Poor, cold Eric's face was so red!

It was such a nice little day! Hope you all enjoyed your Saturday, as well.