Walking Off the Big Apple

In my previous post I mentioned that I lost 17.5 pounds over the past nine weeks. Fabulous! I need to say that at the outset I never planned to endure an insane restrictive diet. I eat well, and I continue to eat better. I have shifted my diet toward the foods everyone knows is better - fruits and vegetables and less saturated fat. I eat just a little bit of dark chocolate almost every day. I'm not a diet freak. I recommend a walk (of course!) to Vosges on Spring Street in Soho.

I took a long walk from Washington Square Park up to 10th St. and then east to the East River Park. The park and eventual restored promenade is undergoing extensive renovation, and it's not hard to see its potential. I could not find a pretty place to sit, so I walked south and back west, finding myself in the Lillian Wald public housing project. Much of the East River in this area is lined with massive brick public housing, but the pockets of small parks and seating areas, now with stately grown sycamore trees, softens the brutal force of these buildings. I'm glad I decided to walk that way today, as the presence of these places reminds me that Manhattan is not only for the well-heeled and rich.

My walk today took me to the Lower East Side, down Mulberry St. and then over east to the Bowery. I made my way to Orchard St., one of the classic streets of the Lower East Side where one can still feel some of the commercial flavor of the immigrant neighborhood. Nevertheless new condo development may push some of this out, and fashionable new restaurants and boutiques are replacing some of the more moderately priced businesses. Over on Bowery, the new New Museum of Contemporary Art is taking shape with its projected opening in the fall. The building designed by SANAA is set amidst several restaurant supply stores and stores devoted to chairs.

Please see this post for current announcements of reopenings . Please consult the museum websites for changes in days and hours. UPDATED September 23, 2020 Advance tickets required for many museum reopenings. Please check museum websites for details. • The  Museum of Modern Art (MoMA)  reopened to the public on  August 27 , with new hours for the first month, through September 27: from 10:30 a.m. until 5:30 p.m. Tuesday through Sunday to the public; and from 10:30 a.m. until 5:30 p.m.  on Mondays for MoMA members on ly. Admission will be free to all visitors Tuesday through Sunday, through September 27, made possible by UNIQLO. See this  new post on WOTBA for a sense of the experience attending the museum . •  New-York Historical Society  reopened on  August 14  with an outdoor exhibition, "Hope Wanted: New York City Under Quarantine,” in the rear courtyard. The exhibit by activist Kevin Powell and photographer Kay Hickman will highlight how New Yorkers weathered the quarantine

I carry my journal and drawing supplies in a small backpack. I draw in ballpoint pen and then add colors with colored pencils. As I frequently make mistakes, I also use a big jumbo correction fluid pen. This drawing of the back of the Garibaldi statue in Washington Square Park is typical of my process.

What makes these urban hikes desirable is knowing that I don't have to walk home. I have public transportation. So at the end of the trip, I pull out the subway map to find the way home. Another thing I need is a restroom, and I usually find one in a bookstore or coffee shop. Bryant Park in midtown has the best public restrooms I've ever seen. My self-imposed regime of calorie counting and walking is pleasant in an older city like New York City. I believe, however, that this process is transferable to most places. Pull up the map at http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/ and check out 2.5 mile walks from your home and see where that puts you.

If you've stumbled across this blog, I welcome you! I'm just now in the process of uploading the selections from my journal, and this may take some time. As I am post-dating the entries from May and June, please enjoy browsing the earliest entries. It will take me a week or two to catch up. The story is best told from the beginning.

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