Welcome to the Bright Lights, Baby

Because we live in New York City now. I don't think this big move really qualifies as "news" anymore, since we just renewed our lease after nearly a year of living in our little Manhattan studio. But it still feels somewhat unfamiliar, although I've embraced New-Yorker-hood with vehemence. I even have a real New York State ID. MJ may still technically be an Idahoan, but I am a certified New Yorker. And I completely adore this city.

From our 21st floor window.

It is the most beautiful, crazy, hectic, breath-taking, fascinating, varied, classy city I've ever known. I know hundreds of hit songs have said it before, but there really is no place like New York. I'm not sure if there is anything you couldn't find here, somewhere, if you just knew where to look. You can even find tiny hidden parks with roaring waterfalls.

Green Acre Park is a lovely oasis between 2nd & 3rd Ave. on 51st Street.

 I was worried that my nature-loving soul would shrivel up and retreat into hibernation once we moved to this concrete jungle, but I couldn't have been more wrong. I miss the wide open skies and towering mountains of Utah and Idaho, but New York City is delightfully lush. New Yorkers are extremely aware of the high value of real estate, and they definitely make the most of any open patch of dirt that can be found. The city is dotted with parks and green spaces, and Central Park is a wonderland of greenery in the heart of a city of steel, cement, stone, and glass.

A woodsy part of Central Park, very aptly named "The Ramble."

I could live in this city for the rest of my life and never really know it. MJ says I still look like a tourist, since I'm constantly craning my neck to look up at all of these incredible buildings. Michael and I live in the Financial District on the southern tip of the island of Manhattan. Dutch settlers first started building here in the early 1600s, so to say we live in an older neighborhood is far from an exaggeration. We also spend a lot of time in Battery Park City where Michael works, which is built on the landfill made with the dirt excavated during the construction of the Twin Towers, so our neighborhood is a blend of the oldest and newest buildings in Manhattan. I love the juxtaposition.

The Woolworth Building built in 1913, was the tallest building in the world at 792 ft. Soaring into the clouds behind the Woolworth is 1 World Trade, now topping out at 1,776 ft. tall.

 True, New York is dirty, gritty, and rough in spots. It doesn't always smell very pleasant, and the summer heat of the subways can be suffocating. But then there are times when you get smacked upside the head with so much beauty that you just can't believe one city could be such a feast for the eye.

Sunset over the Hudson River.

I know it was Paris that Hemingway deemed a "moveable feast," but this blur of a city is captivates your senses in so many ways, I can't help but feel like it's a place to be devoured rather than merely viewed. Perhaps this is because my life is now so focused on food—it's all I talk about all day long. But that's another post... Whatever the reason, I can't get enough of this place.

Stoop-id Love

So if you're ever walking down Wall Street and see a woman leaning precariously out of a window over 200 feet above the pavement, don't panic—I'm just drinking in my view.

Looking west along Wall St.