10 days. 240 hours. NYC – the city that never sleeps. Not an understatement. 42^nd St., Times Square, Broadway. Always crowded with people coming and going – to the theater, to restaurants, to stores, or just coming and going. Any night, in good weather, seems like New Year’s Eve.

The Great White Way is a sea of neon. What would you like to buy? Where would you like to go? What would you like to eat, drink, drive? It’s up there in lights. Everyone, and I mean everyone, is taking pictures. Give us a warm fall evening, a camera or a phone, and we’re on it!

Off the street, high up, Dizzy’s Club Coca Cola, at Lincoln Center, offers up some of the best jazz in town.

11PM. Let’s not forget to find a spot away from the madding crowd to replenish and prepare for another day.

This concludes my three blogs on NYC Fall 2014. Scroll down for #1 and #2. It will be nice to remember as winter takes hold and the scenes change.

Happy traveling!

10 days. 240 hours. Man (or woman) does not live by bread alone. Certainly not in NYC. You can fuel up anywhere, anytime, day or night, with anything your heart desires. Street vendors, who now add middle eastern falafel, Mexican tacos and gluten-free offerings to the standard hot dog (with everything, please) and pretzel (warm, with salt, please) are everywhere.

You can even eat “heart healthy.” Grab and go fruit!

While there is a Starbuck’s on almost every corner, there are still coffee shops like Reggio’s in Greenwich Village. Reggio’s feels like a comfy living room and makes a damn good cappuccino. We took a Food Tour of Greenwich Village with Free Tours on Foot. Really free! You can give a gratuity to the guide at the end. Our young guide gave us some history of the area as we ate our way through fresh, hot falafel, artichoke pizza (no kidding), bagel buns filled with all kinds of cream cheese, which I managed to squirt all over myself, and dessert, yummy. In the rain. It was the only rainy day in 10, but who cared?

If food is everywhere, so is fashion. High and low. There is something for everyone. Buyer beware!

At the end of a busy day – libations!

Blog #3 – After Dark, coming soon. Last, but not least.

10 days. 240 hours. Uptown, downtown, all around the town. NYC is still, very much, a city of neighborhoods. It’s a city that invites you to explore as much as you can on foot or by subway (the fastest way to get around). A Metro card with unlimited rides on trains or buses for one week will set you back only $30.00, not as cheap as it used to be, but still a bargain compared to taxi cabs.

Instead of exploring NYC in one blog, I will write several (3), each one focusing on a different aspect of my recent trip.

Art is everywhere. From kitsch in store windows and graffiti,

to this display by artist Korakrit Arunanondaci. “My Trip to the White Temple” is like a lacy cut out with a video in the center which changed as you watched and reflected the traffic passing by. I could have walked right by without noticing. It was magical.

There is art on the High Line, but as I looked down at the apartment buildings, this sculpture by Charlie Hewitt caught my eye.

The architecture of the Metropolitan Museum of Art is noteworthy and so is the art inside. There is often a temporary exhibit on the rooftop garden. Besides the exhibit, the views of the city above the treetops in Central Park are spectacular. The current site-specific installation is “Hedge Two-Way Mirror Walkabout” by Dan Graham with Gunther Vogt, a Swiss landscape architect. Steel curves hold panels of two-way mirrored glass. The garden maze of reflections was fun for adults (mostly taking selfies) and kids running in and out.

NYC always feels like a construction zone. Old coming down, new going up. Different times, different styles.

At the risk of being labeled “tourist” (which I am), I always look up (when not looking down). Often, several architectural styles bump up against each other like these along the High Line. There is one block in mid-town where I counted six different styles next to each other.

Patterns inside and outside are there for the taking. Greenwich Village, with its narrow streets and old buildings (now commanding sky-high rents) still feels like a “village.” It’s that NYC “neighborhood” thing. A quick subway ride to Christopher St. puts you right there. At its heart is Washington Square Park with its distinctive arch.

The area around the 9/11 Memorial is still under construction, but the Freedom Tower is finished and is reflected in the nearby building.

So much to see, so little time.

Blog #2 – Food & Fashion, coming soon!