jtr1962
Storage? I am Storage!
OK, it's official. I'm now Storage Forum's New York City tour guide(an unofficial title I have bestowed upon myself), and I'll explain how this came to be.
Several months ago Cliptin e-mailed me and expressed a desire to see NYC for himself. I offered my opinions on some things of personal interest besides the usual tourist traps since I think anyone visiting a place should get a good perspective on it, not just the narrow-minded view that visiting only tourist spots brings. Several e-mails later, he was able to set aside a week to tour the city, and we spent the better part of a day together seeing some sights of interest. Initially, we hadn't planned to meet personally, but he suggested it and I thought it was a good idea as well. I enjoyed his company and I was quite happy with the way things turned out other than a slight transportation-induced fiasco likely caused by weekend/holiday subway track work.
First, he took the 7 train to downtown Flushing(i.e. Chinatown II). I gave him the grand tour, and we had a bite to eat. Afterwards, we hopped the subway to Ground Zero, and spent several hours touring the general area(yes, it can take that long due to all the little things of interest in the most unlikely places, and it changes every time I come). I then showed him Battery Park where the Sphere sculpture(officially called Commerce Through Peace, actually) is temporarily on loan, and we had a rather bizarre hour-long dissertation from a man who apparently knew every fact about the Twin Towers. This encounter was very interesting, informative, unexpected, and very New York. You just never knew who you'll bump into randomly walking around.
Afterwards, we walked to Chinatown to get a bite to eat(more for him than me since I was still full from my late lunch), toured around a bit more, and then decided to call it a night around 10. This was when the subway fiasco began. We boarded the E train at Canal St., and he had to transfer to the downtown #5 at 53rd and Lexington. The E-train was actually fine to get me most of the way home, but I went with him to make the transfer because the station is rather cavernous and poorly marked. As you would know it, the downtown #5 wasn't making all stops(i.e. it wasn't stopping at that station), so we went uptown to 86th with the intention of crossing over and taking the #6 express back downtown. Of course, as luck would have it, the 86th station didn't have a cross-over so it was either exit and re-enter on the other side(at the cost of a fare) or wait maybe 15 minutes for the next train and cross-over at 125 Street. I did the latter, he did the former since he had an all-day subway pass, and as of this writing I assume he got to his destination OK within perhaps half an hour. As for myself, without going into more boring details, a series of delays and late night subway operations meant that I didn't get home until 2 hours later. I didn't care too much since aimlessly riding the subways is an occasional pastime of mine, I just wasn't in the mood to do it at 11 PM that particular day.
I'm sure we'll both fill you in on more details as this thread develops, but my reason for writing this is to extend an open invitation to everyone at SF to come and visit New York. If you like, and if it fits both our schedules, I can even give personal tours.
. I've gotten certain impressions of the people here from their posts, and it's really interesting to see how the real person differs from the online persona. Perhaps some day, I can even return the favor and visit some of the people who come here. So come one, come all, bring your friends, girlfriends, wives, kids, whoever. The more the merrier, and I personally think the city is at it's best during the Christmas holidays. :mrgrn:
Several months ago Cliptin e-mailed me and expressed a desire to see NYC for himself. I offered my opinions on some things of personal interest besides the usual tourist traps since I think anyone visiting a place should get a good perspective on it, not just the narrow-minded view that visiting only tourist spots brings. Several e-mails later, he was able to set aside a week to tour the city, and we spent the better part of a day together seeing some sights of interest. Initially, we hadn't planned to meet personally, but he suggested it and I thought it was a good idea as well. I enjoyed his company and I was quite happy with the way things turned out other than a slight transportation-induced fiasco likely caused by weekend/holiday subway track work.
First, he took the 7 train to downtown Flushing(i.e. Chinatown II). I gave him the grand tour, and we had a bite to eat. Afterwards, we hopped the subway to Ground Zero, and spent several hours touring the general area(yes, it can take that long due to all the little things of interest in the most unlikely places, and it changes every time I come). I then showed him Battery Park where the Sphere sculpture(officially called Commerce Through Peace, actually) is temporarily on loan, and we had a rather bizarre hour-long dissertation from a man who apparently knew every fact about the Twin Towers. This encounter was very interesting, informative, unexpected, and very New York. You just never knew who you'll bump into randomly walking around.
Afterwards, we walked to Chinatown to get a bite to eat(more for him than me since I was still full from my late lunch), toured around a bit more, and then decided to call it a night around 10. This was when the subway fiasco began. We boarded the E train at Canal St., and he had to transfer to the downtown #5 at 53rd and Lexington. The E-train was actually fine to get me most of the way home, but I went with him to make the transfer because the station is rather cavernous and poorly marked. As you would know it, the downtown #5 wasn't making all stops(i.e. it wasn't stopping at that station), so we went uptown to 86th with the intention of crossing over and taking the #6 express back downtown. Of course, as luck would have it, the 86th station didn't have a cross-over so it was either exit and re-enter on the other side(at the cost of a fare) or wait maybe 15 minutes for the next train and cross-over at 125 Street. I did the latter, he did the former since he had an all-day subway pass, and as of this writing I assume he got to his destination OK within perhaps half an hour. As for myself, without going into more boring details, a series of delays and late night subway operations meant that I didn't get home until 2 hours later. I didn't care too much since aimlessly riding the subways is an occasional pastime of mine, I just wasn't in the mood to do it at 11 PM that particular day.
I'm sure we'll both fill you in on more details as this thread develops, but my reason for writing this is to extend an open invitation to everyone at SF to come and visit New York. If you like, and if it fits both our schedules, I can even give personal tours.
. I've gotten certain impressions of the people here from their posts, and it's really interesting to see how the real person differs from the online persona. Perhaps some day, I can even return the favor and visit some of the people who come here. So come one, come all, bring your friends, girlfriends, wives, kids, whoever. The more the merrier, and I personally think the city is at it's best during the Christmas holidays. :mrgrn:
