For the last coupla weeks, I ve had a project on the back burner, languishing in my e-mail drafts.....

Jules of LA and her husband would like to visit NYC and do it up for a few days, and asked me what I would suggest.

I thought I could handle it.

But the task has kinda floored me, because an itinerary of NY without doing the usual suspects is difficult.

Not that there is anything wrong with the usual suspects (Times Square, Chinatown, Broadway, Statue of Liberty, the Tall Buildings, the Museums etc)... but I wanted to suggest the 'real' New York.
I didnt wanna give her a crappy list.

Hmm.

Im starting to think, Im not up to the job, really - and, I suspect most New Yorkers arent.

Im not sure why. Maybe the task is too big. Maybe New York is just too much.

My original thought was to just send her the Manhattan Bus and Subway maps and let her peruse 'em.

But prolly the best way to go about it, would be to ask myself what I would do if I were gone for awhile and came back...

With a $17 unlimited Metrocard for the week in hand, I would, at the very least:

- Take a cab ride up the FDR to 72nd. Not down. Up.
- Take an early morning or late evening ride on the Staten Island Ferry. Also, take a ride up the Hudson past manhattan.
- Take a helicopter ride around manhattan, preferably on a clear haze-less day so that you can see the mountains and all the way down the coasts too.
- Walk from the Tribeca/Hudson Tunnel area up Canal Street to the Bowery. Make a right at Mott Street and do Little Italy. I would highly suggest Pellegrino's for their lunch specials.
- Take the Subway to the West 4th station and wander aimlessly around the East Village from there.
- Do the Union Square greenmarket on a Saturday.
- Walk down the island from around Lincoln Square to Wall Street. Although Second Avenue route is good, I would walk down Broadway all the way.
- Take the bus from Columbia University all the way down Broadway to the ferry, taking the day to get on and off at will.

Yeah.. thats what I would do.

Although that list may seem prosaic and dry at a first reading, doing any and all of the above will hit ya with all the unrelentingly steamy energy and sensory overload of a tropical forest.

Unforgettable, and probably like nothing else you will see, feel or hear elswhere.

Uniquely New York.

Yeah, thats the ticket.. if you came back to NY and wanted to do things that made you appreciate NY - what wouldja do?

If anyone wants to send Jules suggestions on how theyd do NYC without the usual suspects, please send her your thoughts....