We’ve been back from New York for a few days now, and I’ve been struggling with whether or not to write a post immediately. Though I brought my DSLR, I mainly took photos on my Canon F1, so it’ll be some time before I have the scans. I love the F1 as a travel camera, since it’s much less bulky and I don’t have to worry about it getting stolen.
Either way, it’s tough to write about a trip that felt so…. un trip-like. I’ve never gone anywhere and stayed in an apartment, which is perhaps the first thing that threw me off. Having an apartment to come back to at night, to grocery shop for, to cook and do laundry in, to run out and get coffee from in the morning, to get food delivered to… it’s absolutely wonderful. Of course, it’s kind of awful too, because if you’re like us, and you love the city and the neighborhood, it makes it really tough to leave.
I had never been to New York before, and while I knew I’d love it (where does a girl who loves Chicago, yet sometimes, naggingly, feels it’s too small, go? New York, of course) I wasn’t really prepared to love the less obvious differences. Every city has its own energy, its own vibe and feel. D.C.’s was quaint in a city way, it was easy to figure out and easy to settle into. It felt safe and inviting, yet not boring. Chicago is home – I can think of no other way to describe it – but it’s also bursting with character and the cycle of reinvention. Old neighborhoods becoming new, always changing, but with those same anchors of the lake, the Loop, the parks, the people. At its heart, I think, its very Midwestern.
What hit me most of all was how easy it was to settle into a New York Routine. In the morning, we’d have coffee, either at our favorite coffee shop down the block, or on the balcony outside our bedroom window. I’ve never had a balcony before, I may have been sold on this alone!
(view from our balcony/bedroom)
(“our” kitchen table)
We joked, while walking around the entire lower side of Manhattan, that if ever we won the lottery Chelsea or one of the nearby areas like the East Village would be our ideal neighborhoods. But I actually loved Brooklyn – specifically, Cobble Hill where we stayed – for the little coffee shops and endless rows of brownstones.
I’m not sure that this post has a point, other than that this trip solidified in our minds that a move to another city is in order within three or four years. I know I’ve mentioned this before, but beyond Cleveland, I haven’t really experienced other cities much. And I don’t know that Cleveland counts as a city, nor would I want to return. I think, despite my best intentions, I’ve become a little bit of a wanderer. It’s very lucky, then, that Ross feels the same way, because each time we travel we seem to get a little more restless to see more of the world.
