Tomorrow, up at pre-dawn, and off to the airport.
Destination: New York City.
Reason:
Not that one needs a reason to visit New York City....but our son who lives in Asia is in NY for work. He wondered if we were free
and might like to fly up and stay with him a few days. Are you kidding me, would we mind?
Of course, the last thing on my mind is packing clothing that might be appropriate. There are more immediate decisions like choosing sketching materials and which lenses for my camera!!!
I am pretty positive I will have time to sketch away in NY.
Camera, sketchbooks, watercolors, water brushes, pens, maps, i Pad, and most importantly a
HUGE bag of Peanut M & M's.
How could one possible have energy enough for sketching, photo-shooting, walking and shopping with out a little nourishment.
Eventually a few clothes got tossed into the mix, something to read, easy stuff like photography manuals, lip balm and pink canvas shoes and a much to heavy back pack!
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Color me RED with embarrassment!!! Eager to be up to snuff with this blog, I was prepared to post the above and then planned to write from New York, like a REAL photo journalist,(laugh) what we were seeing and doing. Well, it didn't quite happen as I imagined.
Did you know that those Fancy Hotels do not provide FREE internet? NO siree, you PAY!!! Gosh even Motel Six, Seven, or Eight gives you free internet. Before you knew it, four days zipped by and we were heading home to Charlotte and nothing, despite my good intentions, was posted.
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Our stay in New York was memorable to say the least, as we arrived on the wings of that blast of heat that splashed across CNN news. The news report was that it was hot enough to fry an egg on the sidewalk. Forget eggs, my feet fried in my hot pink tennis shoes! My Black camera was to hot to hold! Remember the clothes I hastily packed...uh, two sweaters, one blouse, one LONG skirt and one pair of cotton pants. Two sweaters, did I think I was going to Siberia? One blouse for four days? A LONG skirt?
Not to belabor the point. But it was so HOT that our evening flight home was CANCELLED, a few hours before take off.
At the last minute, where in the world does one stay in NYC with an explosion of hot, sweaty tourists? (Oh, before I forget, our son's room was in a very nice hotel near Rockefeller Center, but stationed outside the heavy brass doors was 24 hour, round the clock policemen in full uniform and bulging weapons. Next to them parked directly in front of the hotel was a police car with a running ticker tape on its roof about terrorism. Yup we felt safe alright!)
Moving on. Delta Airline bless its heart put us in a room near the airport. We were so hot and exhausted that we grabbed a bucket of ice, two glasses and never left the room for dinner.
And now we are home....and guess what. It is smokin' hot here, hot enough to cook southern BBQ on the sidewalk.
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I can't expect you to read through all this without including a few fun photos. There will be more to come, but for now.....
There was a time when to sit next to the airplane window made me seriously sick and dizzy. I knew if I touched the wall I would fall out like some "silly" without a parachute.
But I have "grown up" and now I love to sit by the window; because I can take photos of beautiful clouds, airplane vapors, sunrises and sunsets...gosh if only the wing wasn't always on the side I am sitting. Such bad luck!
Soon we will be in NY, we are flying over water, you can see it shimmer below.
It is a glorious sight to sail with the clouds, higher than birds.
After unpacking we headed straight for the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Not to see the Impressionist collection this time, but the Asian collections and a few old masterpieces.
Organic, sculptural, symbolic shells carved over 3,000 years ago. Oh, to hold in one's hand and feel the deep incisions and ponder who crafted such a thing of beauty.
This is a most unusual Buddha. The position of the head turned towards the shoulder is very rare, then there are the layers and layers of deep rich glaze. Simply breathtaking.
