Exploring the Upper East Side

Central Park East

Today, after lounging in bed with coffee for a couple of hours - I decided to go explore some of the Upper East Side. So I walked up 5th Avenue along the park to about 91st St. Then crossed over to Madison Avenue and down to about 70th and took a taxi home, so I can meet Micheale @ TKTS in the hopes of getting cheap seats to a show tonight. (More pics at the bottom ~ coming soon!)

Along the way, I really enjoyed the park - I kept popping in as I got farther and farther up - and saw lots of cool things I've never seen before including the Reservoir - which is a big lake right in the middle of the park. It was a pretty hazy day, but still really beautiful.

I love the clean smell that you get walking through the park - you can feel all that good O2 going in your lungs - it;s such a stark contrast to the fumes of the city.

I hung out in front of the Met for a little bit - I'm waiting to go see it with Kathy, but I'm super excited because there's an Andy Warhol exhibit right now!! In front of the museum a Doo-Wop group was performing - they were so good and lots of fun. I drank a bottle of water and rested on the stairs awhile and did some people watching.

The Stairs @ the Met

I got the to Guggenheim Museum and was very excited to go in - however - they are closed on Thursdays, so will go up another day. I decided to go see the Whitney Museum and realized it's on Madison, in the 70s - so I headed across. The whole area is filled with really cool brownstones and Federal style buildings and loads of trees.

Madison Ave. had a totally different vibe - loads of shops. I stopped into 3 Guys Cafe for lunch and had chicken pot pie - YUMoH!

The Reservoir

Finally made it to the Whitney only to find that they only had 2 out of 5 floors open today - I decided to go on in anyway. The 3rd floor had an exhibit of this guy who does all his work on Ink Jet printers. He creates these HUGE pieces by printing on linen with an ink jet printer. Totally random but kinda interesting. He's all into making statements about technology. One of the installations was a line of sterling silver Us - all different shapes - lined up next to each other. I assume this was his representation of when you stick your phone in your pocket while you're still in messaging and it types a bunch of Us while you're walking. That's what I think it was, anyway!

The 2nd floor was an exhibit on signs and symbols which was much cooler. They had early work of Jackson Pollack way before his paint splashing era and the guy was a pretty amazing illustrator. There were also a bunch of early stuff from Mark Rothko - also a total departure from his iconic work.of lines and squares. I actually love Mark Rothko - so it was very cool to see totally different work from him.

I walked some of the short blocks - just to see the the brownstones, then decided to grab a cab and head on back. It was so fun to just walk around an area and discover what was there. This is what I most wanted to do here this month - walk the neighborhoods. My first time out did not disappoint!!

Synagogue Upper East Side

Monument to Someone?

The Met

Doo-Wop Group

Brownstones

Guggenheim

Reservoir