Manhattanhenge

Our 20 Child-free Days continued with a trip to NYC to see Manhattanhenge (the sun setting between the buildings). Or as a friend called it something that happens naturally a few times a year, but became a phenomenon due to social media.

Yes, it was something we have heard about over the years and thought would be fun to do. The trouble is, Ashley really hates going into NYC. When I found out it was happening this year on July 12 and 13 -- during the dates Ashley would be in Europe -- Don and I made plans to check it out.

If we are spending the time, energy, and money to go into NYC, we might as well do more than just watch the sunset. Right? We parked in Hoboken and took the PATH to 33rd station, and the subway to the top of Central Park at 125th (on the D line), because the D line came in before the B line, which would have stopped at 110th, the true top of Central Park. What is another 15 blocks? Those extra 15 blocks, and our meandering, meant we nearly missed seeing the sunset.

Back to our wanderings. We went into the St. John the Divine, the church that holds the annual blessing of the bikes each May. As you can see in my pictures, it was pretty overcast at this point. Not the best weather for watching a sunset.

This took us to Central Park. Typically when we walk around Central Park, we start at the bottom and go maybe 1/3 of the way before turning around. This time we decided to start at the top and go to the bottom.

We could see the sun starting to set, so we moved a little faster.

First we passed the "new" Comcast Building. Don works for Comcast and had read the announcement that the GE / RCA building was officially being renamed the Comcast Building.

Onto the main event! Through social media I solicited advice for the best viewing spot. Recommendations included down 72nd, 57th, and 34th. We ultimately went with 34th, with snapshots along the way at each cross street. I think our official best picture was around 37th or 38th. 

Almost as much fun as taking pictures of the sunset, is taking pictures of the people (like us) blocking traffic to take pictures. As the cars were beeping at us to get out of the middle of the street, I wanted to tell them to just look at what was happening and enjoy the moment. The sunset would only last a few minute leaving only memories.

As we wandered back to the 33rd Street Path Station we saw Seward Johnson sculptures. It felt as if we were bumping into old friends.