Scenes from New York // Part 3 of 3

After a long night at the Surf Lodge, we woke up early Sunday morning and started our trek back down Long Island. On the way we took a few last looks at all the trees and other greenery, knowing that where we were headed there would be none. We stopped to have a late breakfast at the Princess Diner. The place looked exactly how it sounds, it was probably the most dinery looking diner you can imagine.
 

I wasn't really surprised about the city to be honest. It was more or less what I had expected. Dirty, too much traffic, people living on top of people etc etc. But there was also something familiar about it all. Maybe I've just seen too many movies about New York.

After checking into the Hotel Indigo and leaving our stuff there, we hit the streets and just started walking. I guess that's just what you do in the city. We visited Soho, checked out Vans DQM, Acne Studios, and some other places that we had only ever heard of, but never seen. One of the things we knew we had to do was go see the One World Observatory, and Ground Zero. The new building is massive, it's really disorienting just looking straight up at it. At the top you can see Manhattan on one side, Long Island off in the distance, and New Jersey across the Hudson. It was really somber down by the Twin Tower footprints, where you can still see one of the columns left standing. Seeing it on TV is one thing, but being there in the physical location gives you way more perspective on how terrifying and chaotic that all must have been.

I only brought two rolls of film to New York for the 4 day trip, and my last photo was at the base of the One World Observatory. Which ended up being perfect, because with the security there being so tight I actually had to open up my camera for the security guard there. Luckily though I had already wound up the film. After visiting the memorial we took the subway to Times Square and got to experience that whole crazy scene. By the end of the night we had walked 7.5 miles, and probably breathed enough fumes to last a lifetime in Orange County. It's definitely a spectacle, and a must see thing, but living there? I'm not sure how anyone could do that.