where the hell IS everybody?
riverside park
That photo was taken today – Saturday, a summer Saturday, at 1:30. It’s 87 degrees, calm winds. Really nice! SO WHERE IS EVERYONE?
This is New York City! Crowded, teeming New York City. BUT: This is New York City in the summer. It really empties out, at least in the parts of town where people live. I’m sure Times Square is its usual bloated bleeting mass of tennis-shoed, fanny-packing, camera-wielding humanity, but luckily, I don’t have to go there.
Parking is easy – spots everywhere. Sidewalks aren’t crowded. Parks are pretty empty. New Yorkers go to the beach – the Jersey shore, out to the Hamptons, anywhere there’s a spot to lie down with water nearby. And luckily, since I live on an island and am surrounded by other islands and a coastline on the Atlantic, there are lots of options. I usually sneak onto the private beach in one of the Hamptons during the summer.
Me, though, as a pale-skinned very white woman, I’m delighted to sit indoors, watch the sun streaming through my white curtains, bake something yummy, watch something engrossing, and knit my brains out. I’m so easy.
Here’s some summer music for you:
It’s amazing – people here in the town where I live and all over NH seem to head to the Cape or to Hampton Beach…others go to ‘family camps’ in Maine…
I tend to head for water once or twice a year – and then I’ll go up to Maine…
Having lived in Florida – water doesn’t seem to be a high point for me – I’d rather see mountains and woods…
On her own blog, Sara just wrote a post titled..Firday Fill-in 183…
ME TOO Sara! the beach and water just don’t have the same appeal for me as mountains and woods. They never have, even though I’ve never lived somewhere like FL. The coolness of mountains and woods is much more appealing. But it is nice when everyone else is off somewhere else.
and I, as a not-too fair-skinned white woman, like to stay in air-conditioning or have the great good fortune to be able to walk around (if the temps allow) the streets in my nabe, and get into any restaurant I feel like, while everyone else is Out Of Town!
On her own blog, margaret just wrote a post titled..Tour de Steel-
yes! and we also like to drive and park anywhere we want in the city – restaurants in a part of town that’s a little harder to get to via subway. i love it when the city empties out!
I’m with you – I’d much rather sit home in the cool and knit than bake outside in the sun all day. My family goes to Myrtle Beach in late Sep/early Oct when it’s still warm but not unbearably hot.
Summer around here is less crowded as well but it’s because most of the college students are gone
i love it too!
On her own blog, Laura just wrote a post titled..Next time trust the math
Columbia University is in my neighborhood, and it’s just glorious when all those students are gone. We can park, and it’s not quite so obnoxious in the neighborhood restaurants. MUCH better. I’m with your family – off-times at the beach are so much better. There’s still the waves, and those rhythms, and sun, but not that sizzling baking feeling. I’ve never been to Myrtle Beach, but it always sounds so beautiful.