Married One Year

Jon and I just celebrated our first wedding anniversary - October 16th. We spent the day together as tourists. Our initial idea was to spend some time on Ellis Island but by the time we got down to Battery Park, the line was already hundreds of people deep. Realizing we should have gotten there much earlier we scrapped that idea and decided to explore the area. Here is Jon checking out Clinton Castle. It's very pretty and if you stand in the middle of the outdoor rotunda, you can see a spectacular view of the downtown buildings. I tried to make a panorama of the view but it came out all funny, so you'll just have to trust me.

Battery Park is very nice and everytime I go there I see an improvement.

I always like this sculpture when I see it. It's called The Immigrants. If you look closely, you can see Jon in the background admiring the sculptor's work - Luis Sanguino.

After milling around the park a while, we decided to walk our way up to China Town. I worked in this area in the 90's and wanted to show Jon some of the cooler things about the area.

There is a great section near Fraunces Tavern with some of historic structures and colonial buildings. I don't remember what street this is, but they've converted it into The William Street Food Court for tourists and people who work in the area. All the buildings along William Street are from the 1800's or so(whenever Colonial Times were).

Anyway, I wish them luck. When I worked down there, it always seemed dead - just like in this picture.

We continued our walk up town and were dazzled by the shiny tall buildings. It's fun to play tourist. I love craning my neck upwards to see how high the skyscrapers reach. Check out this view. The weather was beautiful on Monday. Look at that blue sky.


We worked our way up William and then hung a left on Park Row near Pace University. Below City Hall we found this quaint little cigar store Indian. I think Jon referred to this block as News Row. This block has some beautiful buildings. If you haven't been, you should check it out.

We found ourselves admiring City Hall Park and I fell in love with this fountain.


There are some beautiful Calder sculptures to be found and a lot of beautiful landscaping. This park is worth a visit for sure.

How much more can I say about what a nice day it was. The temperature was perfect for taking a long romantic walk and we continued walking until our final destination - Doyers Street in China Town. We ate lunch at one of our favorite out of the way places Doyer's which specializes in Vietnamese food. I'm not expert enough to know if the food is styled from a certain region but we love it none the less. Here is a shot of Doyers Street.


I have learned from a friend that Doyers Street has the highest murder rate of any street in the city. For this reason, it's also known as The Bloody Angle.

I can't think of a better way for Jon and I to have spent our first anniversary.

I love him very much. I'm glad we're married.