New York, New York!

This past weekend I was judging in New Jersey, but was given a New York City tour by my pal and fellow judge, Scott Stock.

NYC is amazing and it reminds me so much of my hometown of Chicago. There is so much going on and culturally it's a hub that everyone should experience. While living in Seattle has certain advantages, unfortunately it hasn't evolved into a city that houses true diversity. NY has is that its roots in being the gateway to the United States where people from all walks of life have settled here over the last century.

During my NY tour, we took the subway (last picture shown) and stopped at Grand Central Station (2nd picture). There were at least a half dozen artists drawing from the very place I took this picture as the architecture is beautiful. Unfortunately my camera phone doesn't do it justice! For some more professional shots of Grand Central, here is a link: http://andrewprokos.com/photos/new-york/landmarks/grand-central-station/. We walked through Manhattan, down Park Place and up Broadway.

Next is a picture of Times Square which was busy, busy, busy! We passed the Ed Sullivan Theatre where David Letterman's studio is, the theatres on Broadway and saw the famous New Year's Eve ball. Since the date of my visit was 9/11, the city was preparing a special event to commemorate those who lost their lives in the twin towers.

One of the things I found amazing was how garbage pick up is handled. As we walked along the streets, there were bags out at the curb. Apparently everyone brings their garbage & recycling down each evening and the city picks it up in the early morning hours. Now this may sound icky, but surprisingly, each bag was piled nicely, there was no smell and the streets were clear of litter. There were garbage cans on every street corner for people to use and none of the cans were overflowing or filthy.

Another interesting thing is that in this park of NY, each sidewalk corner was made of a beautiful natural stone and not cement. I can understand how people think that the USA has streets paved with gold!

For dinner, we went to Little Italy, which is next to NY's China Town. We had an amazing Italian dinner and then stopped at an outside vendor for some cannoli's. Ah, how I miss having these delicious treats!

I just had to take a picture of all of the cannoli's so that I could fondly remember them...

Last but not least is a picture of the subway that I mentioned earlier.

As always, a great trip and a wonderful experience!