A Country Mouse Goes to the City: A Tuesday of Exploring

Mary's Fish Camp -- no, that's not the door under the air conditioner

As the end of my summer in NYC draws nearer, I find myself trying to decide what things I must see again and what things I haven't seen and must see before I leave. Today, I decided to go to the Chelsea Market once more. Now, the question was, how was I going? I looked at my map, and an idea occurred. Why not start at what is, for the time being anyway, the beginning of the High Line and walk it to the market. At present, on this end, the High Line begins at West 30th Street and runs to Gansevoort Street (just beyond 14th Street) on the other end. I was so glad I started at West 30th, because I got to see a part of the High Line that I had not seen before, and because I got to see some really great art and beautiful greenery along the way. It is amazing how so many of the apartments and buildings that border the High Line have created art of their own. I thoroughly enjoyed these discoveries and the talent exhibited. Since you are walking 300 feet above the street, you are up among the upper floors of buildings you would ordinarily only see from street level. And all along the way, people have created art in their windows, on their porches, and on their walls. Hope you enjoy seeing some of it as much as I did. This journey was so enjoyable that I just kept right on going on the High Line when I came to Chelsea Market and continued to the end at Gansevoort Street.

Rick had told me about a new app called Chefs Feed, which I had downloaded. This gives chefs' recommendations of where and what they like to eat. I had checked out the area and determined that Mary's Fish Camp was going to be my choice for a mid-afternoon lunch/early supper. A fish camp sounds exciting, right -- at least, Cole's used to be anyway. Walking to this charming restaurant was almost as fun as eating there. The streets were old and quiet with trees lining many of the streets. This was in the West Village area very near the Hudson River. When I reached the restaurant, if I had not have had the address, I might have missed it, because you have to look very closely to find its name. It was even hard to find the door, but I located the blue double screen doors that reminded me of the screen doors we used to see so often in the South. Going inside, I found the cutest restaurant ever. It had a bar with 9 stools and tables and chairs for about 20 more people. There were large plate glass windows across the front and on the side. The interior was blue and it had paintings of Florida postcards and the Wachee Mermaids (I suppose this is from the Weeki Wachee ones in Florida). The windows were filled with bouquets of black-eyed Susans and Queen Anne's lace. Since I was alone, they asked me to sit at the bar, which I ended up thoroughly enjoying. The kitchen was right there, and I got to watch them preparing the food. I had an oyster po' boy, which was absolutely delicious from the hot toasted bread to the unusual hot sauce to the freshly (lightly) breaded fried oysters.

Afterwards, I backtracked to Chelsea Market for a few "must have" items I wanted, and then it was on towards Union Square. Ever since I have been here, I have wanted to go to Big Gay Ice Cream or their traveling truck for some unusual soft-serve ice cream. For the past couple of weeks, their ice cream truck has been on hiatus, but returned to service this past weekend. Today, I asked Rick to follow them on Twitter and let me know where the truck was. I didn't do it, because I always forget to check. Of course, Rick didn't fail me, and I got a text telling me it was near Union Square. When I arrived and found the truck, there was quite an impressive line waiting to get served. When it was finally my turn, I asked the lady for her recommendation, because I thought both the wasabi pea dust and the toasted curry\ied coconut both sounded delicious. This is when she told me of an "off the menu" item called "Fusion," which is half of each. So that's what I got -- soft-serve ice cream in a cone half dusted with toasted curried coconut and the other half dusted with crushed wasabi peas. I think the wasabi pea dust was my favorite -- but I do like wasabi peas. And upon getting to the last bite of my cone, I found such a nice surprise -- the bottom of the cone had been filled with the pea dust creating the perfect surprise ending!

It's been another great day for this country mouse in the city. I can't wait to get back to Mississippi and make some good homemade vanilla ice cream and sprinkle it with wasabi pea dust. Who wants to join me?

On a building at the beginning of the high Line at West 30th Street

A building along the High Line. I think this is beautiful!

Cute window shade along the High Line

Building art on the High Line

The female version of the window shade.

The High Line Zoo -- someone's porch

A view from the High Line looking down the street across the Hudson River and into New Jersey

The view looking the other way toward Midtown

More building art (above and below)

A view of the Empire State Building from the High Line -- not because I'm particularly fascinated by the Empire State but because that's the block that we live on.