Field Trip Friday

So I decided that Fridays would be my field trip day, which means late blog postings (I know how much everyone is anticipating every entry, so I do apologize), but hopefully it also means thrilling, edge-of-your seat stories for the Friday blog. TGIF.

So today I decided I would go to the Farmer's Market at Union Square; I think it's supposed to be one of the best most famous farmer's markets in the city, but I'm not sure. We had been there once before in the fall and had a good experience, so I wanted to check it out in the dead of the winter. And, I decided that I was going to walk there and back to add to the "adventurousness" of the first Field Trip Friday. It's about a 3.1 mile walk each way, just about a straight shot down Broadway, so I was destined to not get lost, which was good.

The trip would take me down to Columbus Circle, through Times Square, by Macy's and some area in the 20's which I don't really know what it's called. Union Square is between 14th and 18th and is bordered by Broadway and Park Ave/4th Ave (it's right where Park ends and 4th sort of starts). We're at 75th, so I got to painfully count down to 14 from 75 and then back up again. So I packed up my bag, charged up my phone, grabbed the iPod and the camera and set out for my journey. Unfortunately, I managed to take 0 pictures in the first Field Trip Friday, I know, I shouldn't have even told you that I took my camera with me.

Good thing I decided that the first Field Trip Friday would be on a day that had 50 mph wind gusts. Awesome. Actually, it was awesome when I was walking there and the wind pushed me down the street. It was not awesome when I was walking home and I was hungry, wind burnt and it felt like a big windy hand pushing me backwards. For comparison sake for my mom and Jeff (who are probably the only 2 people who read this), it was windier than the Statue of Liberty, but WAY warmer. The hardest part of the journey (besides the wind), or maybe I guess the most annoying part, was the fact that Broadway wanders diagonally down Manhattan (between 77th and 6th streets, above and below that it is straight). So it's kind of really annoying because it crosses 4 avenues, which means navigating through these huge intersections where you can't really tell which street is going to which direction. Times Square is obviously the worst. I always have to cross back and forth repeatedly to make sure I get on the right side of the right street to go in the right direction. But have no fear, I managed to get it right the second time around, and I never wandered too far off my path, I know you all were worried.

The farmer's market was terribly unexciting, there were about 15 vendors, which is reasonable since it's February. But they did have some good ones - a honey vendor (my only purchase at the market was a bottle of honey), homemade pretzel vendor, turkey vendor (with some delicious smelling turkey sausage), and a couple of bakeries that looked like they had some great bread products. I do like the fact that it's open 4 days a week even in the winter. Although maybe not worth a 3 mile walk (one way), but it was Field Trip Friday, so I guess that was the point.

So as I leave you for the weekend, with such an unexciting story about the unexciting Farmer's Market, I promise you that next week's Field Trip Friday will include some pictures. Hopefully that's enough to keep you reading the blog. TGIF.