Face the Challenge: Of River-side Walks (with Complementary Eyecandy!)

In the spirit of "Operation See More of New York" (and also because my unlimited metro pass expires tomorrow), I dragged my ass out and downtown again. This time, I decided to walk on the Hudson River Esplanade, by the World Trade Center and through Battery Park to the South Ferry terminal. I figured, the day was beautiful, and the park is a straightforward place to walk through. You don't have to look at a map, you just look around: trees? You're still in the park. No trees? You're lost buddy.

I have to say, I was very very impressed by this park. It was a really well-developed waterfront area and now I really wished I lived close by so I could run there!

Speaking of running ... well, let's just say it was a hot day and I wasn't upset that all those hunky guys had to run shirtless ;)

Sorry, I don't have any pictures of the shirtless guys. What do you guys think I am, a creeper? Heh. Instead, I bugged some people to take photos of me. And whaddaya know? Every single one of them was a tourist. Seriously, I'm begging to believe that there are no actual New Yorkers in Manhattan. Because when I'm downtown, anytime I'm trying to interact with people, they always seem to be from some Eastern European country with zero knowledge of English. Where are the New Yorkers?!?!

This park walk was a decidedly good choice for the day, because uptown was actually quite hot, but here, the breeze from the sea and the fact that there were two walking lanes - one in the sun and one under the trees, meant that I didn't have to start melting into a puddle right this minute.

1.5 hrs of walking later, I was starving, so I once again headed uptown (keeping these excursions short and sweet makes them exciting, right?). As soon as I walked through the door, I felt like I was hit with one of those giant rubber mallets, and I basically spent the rest of the evening doing nothing with my fan on full-blast. Met one of my new roommates (such a sweetheart!) and went to bed at 10pm. You guys, I am leading such an exciting life here in New York.

So I'll just leave you with the rest of the pictures of the day ...