approachable apple

All day I had a hankering to go into the city just to walk around and do whatever crossed my path. Enlisting my girlfriend to tag along and assigning her to be the organizer of the whole endeavor, Brittanie, who would deny being well-versed in decoding the subway map enigma that always seems to stump me, took to her role hesitantly because she had no idea what to do nor the same kind of drive as I had to take the quick trip over. I just told her to pick a place and let's go! and my travel agent did a wonderful job.

In my past, going into New York has been an experience that has been tumultuous, one involving gross over-planning and the eventual glitch of getting lost even after the over-planning. Trips have been excessive, where the amount of time spent there is overwhelming, the amount of people (and who the company was) tagging along is nagging, and the places we would visit overcrowded tourist traps, all playing into my distaste of going into the city. I would attempt to set guidelines: no more than three people, not going to Times Square, and not going during holidays. But, you know, as luck would have it, these would always broken and, alas, there would come some bickering and frustration, too much congestion, and a headache from the stress of it all.

Now though, it has been so much nicer to go because Brittanie and I can go on a whim, know where we're going, and stay for however long we want which makes life more interesting and enjoyable. Finding all sorts of neat things to do, she finally decided to go to The Strand, a bookstore boasting 18 miles of books, and a sandwich shop. It was a seamless three hour adventure. A ladder was there for use to climb to get books at the topmost shelves and, of course, the book Brittanie wanted was towered at the highest one, but I manned up and got it for her! The store had a very old feel about it. You could easily get so absorbed into trying to find a good book in the entire place.

I loved how approachable New York was today. I've always wanted it to be like that where I could just go so freely as if I was going around the block. With Brittanie living so close, I don't see why it shouldn't be that way. We went in and out, totaling about three hours in all, and the city was just as comfortable as walking in a shopping mall. Hopefully we will take full advantage and find some cool little nooks in time to come!

I had to get a picture of Brittanie wearing her mustard-colored cardigan (in the middle of the heat of the summer) which matched the color theme of the specific spot!

-SFR