A Country Mouse Goes to the City: Exploring on the East Side

On Tuesday, since my fellow country mice had returned home and I had no one to play with, I decided that it was time to start visiting places on my list that I had not yet seen. Two such places were the atrium in the Ford Foundation Building and the Lipstick Building. Plus I knew it was quite possible that I might make a few discoveries along the way. Both of these buildings are on the east side down in the 2nd and 3rd Avenue areas. So it was down towards the East River I headed, crisscrossing back and forth on the streets and avenues attempting to discover some unexpected finds and trying to stay out of the sun as much as possible.

As always, I am fascinated by the buildings. The older buildings especially contain so many intricate details that I am continually amazed. I just had to snap a few to share. I don't know anything about the buildings, it was just that the details "spoke" to me.

The atrium in the lobby of the Ford Foundation Building was quite spectacular. I liked the fact that the offices in this high-rise building looked out over an atrium. It truly was an area of calm in the midst of constant motion outside. I couldn't photograph it, but there was also water flowing in the center pool. And everything was so quiet in here that you could actually hear the sound of the flowing water.

Continuing on, I walked though the Tudor City area of Manhattan. It was also a quiet, shaded area with a beautifully landscaped flower garden that had benches for sitting and reflecting. Upon leaving this area, I happened on a very long shaded concourse with some unusual sculptures and a garden named for Katharine Hepburn. Walking down this concourse, I found myself at the United Nations Building. I did not have this on my "to do" list, but I was glad I had the opportunity to see it. Upon returning home, I did a little research and found that this is the Dag Hammarskjold Plaza, gateway to the United Nations. The ten sculptures are called Walking Figures by Magdalena Abakanowicz. And the Katharine Hepburn Garden is the largest public garden on the east side of midtown Manhattan.

Next, it was on toward the Lipstick Building, which I could now see in the distance. Along the way, I found a restaurant named for me -- Mimi's. (I'm Nora's Mimi anyway!) And across the street from Mimi's was a really unique building that I just happened to like -- imagine that!

Arriving at the Lipstick Building, I couldn't understand why it is called Lipstick, but when I showed Kelsey the pictures, she was able to point out to me that it looks like a tube of lipstick with the actual lipstick sticking out on top. I don't think you can see this from my pictures, but maybe you get the gist.

On the return trip, I saw the building with the beautiful and extremely detailed top. It was very pretty sitting up in the blue sky. You can always find art work just about anywhere you go in the city, and I came across this little area with cute circus type murals around on different buildings. My favorite was the giraffe. So this turned out to be a day to mark off some items on my list of things to see and to discover more places that I hadn't even imagined!