A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood

The Hudson River from the High Line in Chelsea on Saturday afternoon (click on images to enlarge

On Saturday my good friend from high school, Suzy Ferenczy MacEnroe, came to NYC for a visit. Suzy and I grew up together upstate, in New Hartford, New York. Our families share a history, and we recently got in touch again. She always had an infectious laugh and a good way with a story, and she still does. Suzy now lives in Beacon, New York, with her family, and she took the train in on Saturday to the Big Apple.

Suzy is unfamiliar with New York so I wanted to give her my take on the city, show her my corner of the world, so we went out to a few spots in my Chelsea neighborhood. First we headed over West 15th Street to the Chelsea Market. You know I'm a big fan of the Chelsea Market.

It was the first time that I noticed those oxidized metal strips across the front of the building. I think the developers of the Chelsea Market did a great job melding new modern elements with the industrial character of this building.

First stop in the Market, Anthropologie. I always like to see what they are up to at Anthropologie. This shelf unit was filled with colorful objects.

I love this tall rolling industrial cart. It looks like carts I recently saw at the Brooklyn Flea.

This big wooden painted table had a metal top, and a huge industrial floor lamp stood over it.

The table was labeled:

This low rolling cart was covered with paint, as if it had come out of an artist's studio. I saw similar carts at the Brooklyn Flea.

These pieces at Anthropologie costs like $4,000 each. Bart Boehlert Beautiful Things tip: go over the Brooklyn Flea and find similar items for about $150.

We went out the back door of the Chelsea Market and climbed the stairs to the High Line, the fairly new elevated park designed on formerly deserted train tracks. It was a beautiful, warm, sunny day. The Hudson River shimmered close by under thin iridescent clouds. Heaven.

We walked to the end of the High Line at 20th Street. Through the locked chain gate fence we could see the next extension which will be stretching north but is not open yet. Though it is on an elevated track in busy Manhattan, it somehow looked to me like a charming path through an English village.

Then we headed back down to the southern end of the High Line which ends in the Meatpacking District. TD and I were up on the High Line about a year ago, and the neat thing about it is that the plants and trees are getting bigger and filling in. Every year it gets better and better.


It's almost like you're in the woods. The landscape designers did a great job.

An Asian tourist asked me to take a picture of he and his wife, but his camera battery was dead. Then he took a picture of Suzy and I.

We met up with TD and proceeded to the Irish pub, The Brass Monkey, for a refreshment before we walked home and had dinner. Here are TD and Suzy talking at the bar.

It was fun to visit with Suzy and catch up and reminisce about old times. High school was such a long time ago. To be honest, I didn't actually have the greatest time in high school, but like the current campaign says:
"It Gets Better."
It really does.
And it was great to see a dear old friend.