Looking up.
A visit to New York.
New York, New York
June 6th, 2025
“I was looking up... it was the nearest thing to heaven! You were there…”
-An Affair To Remember
Looking up.
Dear Reader,
We left a hot and sticky Baltimore yesterday morning for a hot and sticky New York City.
To get to our hotel we crept along 48th street. Horns honked, and the streets teemed with people. The air was hot and heavy.
We checked into our room at a busy hotel on Central Park South. This morning I stepped out for a walk through the park. Despite the early hour and the heat, there were loads of other people out too. Bikers, walkers, joggers, dogs, and babies took their morning constitutional.
Walking in Central Park. Photo by Adrien.
Growing up, my mother took me and my siblings to visit her mother on the upper East Side about once a year. Walking through the park, she pointed out the landmarks of her childhood.
“We used to climb all over poor Hans.”, she said.
Hans Christian Andersen.
As a teenager, I stayed with my grandmother in the house my mother grew up in while I was modeling, and later, in my early twenties, I lived in a flat in the east village as I rehearsed and performed in a play.
Adrien too lived in New York. Still, we wandered to dinner looking up the whole way.
“Gosh.”, he said, stopping at a construction site. “Those pillars are going up hold up that entire structure.”.
We had dinner at the Grand Central Oyster Bar in Grand Central train station with my younger brother and his wife. The tables are covered with red checkered cloths, and the waiters, dressed in blue shirts, take your drink order and bring freshly baked sourdough bread and multi grain crackers with cold butter. The only music playing is that of clinking glasses, silverware, and chit chat.
Although it’s not a month ending in r, we ordered oysters. They came from Maine, Rhode Island, California, and Virginia. Doused in lemon juice and red wine vinegar, they were salty and refreshing.
Grand Central Oyster Bar.
Today the festivities of my friend’s wedding begin.
More to come.
Abrazos,
Mariah
It appears you enjoyed Grand Central Oyster Bar. My last trip to New York resulted in me visiting there on my first stop. Alas, it was in January, which was a better oyster month! Still, it was almost 20 years ago. Great memories!
I also found out that looking up in New York is how the locals can identify the tourists. The locals never look up; they know about the tall buildings. However, the tourists always look up, because most of them are still amazed that they make buildings that tall.
You know how you can tell a hillbilly in NYC? The roof of his mouth is sunburned. 🥁