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A Rainy Day at Union Square

On one afternoon on a quick trip to New York City, I popped downtown sans Brompton.  It was wet and cold, and I hadn’t brought good rain gear with me, so I hoofed it (and rode the subway).

rn-stI headed down to Union Square.  All that water made for nice color saturation in the park.

It does the same thing for the streets and buildings, too, but the effect isn’t quite as vibrant.

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New York babies get used to the elements early.  A carapace like this one helps.

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These rather glorious blossoms were in for a rude shock:  the next day, it snowed.

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Generally speaking, when I head to Union Square, I’m going to Paragon Sports just to see what’s up, but I always like stopping in at this Barnes and Noble.  Though it’s large for an NYC bookstore, I think what I like best is the building exterior, and all those Citibikes out front.

rn-bn

If chain stores must exist in cities, it’s a good thing when they fit so relatively discreetly into the existing infrastructure.

I enjoyed a long conversation in the sports section with a cycling advocate, and ended up buying a couple of books designed to improve my cycling fitness.  We’ll see how that goes; neither one had any advice on how to extend a day past 24 hours, which is possibly what I actually require.

6 replies on “A Rainy Day at Union Square”

Union Square is a regular stop for me in growing season, when it hosts the city’s largest farmers’ market. This morning, I snapped a pic of the same view captured in your second photo!

If I promise to leave a comment on every single post of yours, will you let me in on the secret of how to extend the day to > 24 hours?
Have a Great Weekend!
Peace :)

I like that Barnes and Noble but the Paragon Sports store is dreadful! The prices are out of bounds and the service personal are too. I’d suggest an REI or some other grungier sporting goods place.

Ugh, Harry — I completely agree about Paragon, about prices and personnel both. At home, I have access to REI and to EMS, but Paragon carries different stock, and a lot more of it, so I drop in on research forays. (They have a great selection of New Zealand wool underlayer garments, for instance), but I don’t think I’ve every actually bought anything there.

I’ve never understood why their staff knows so little about what they sell; that seems really strange for a sports store.

REI, in Soho, is much larger than my home store, so I drop in there occasionally, though I’m pretty familiar with their stock. The EMS, not too far away, isn’t as interesting, but it is near the MoMA store where I saw my first Strida cycle. (Bright red, downstairs; a beauty!)

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