I grew up right outside New York City. My father was born and raised in Washington Heights and when I was a young girl, he took me into Manhattan quite frequently and we would walk and talk for hours. We had our usual stomping grounds...Rockefeller Center, FAO Schwarz, Trump Tower and the Metropolitan Museum of Art. But the places I most remember were those off the beaten path. He would take me to The Roosevelt Hotel to use the ladies room or his favorite diner on sixty-second street for a milk shake and we would always visit his office which seemed so enormous to me with its' vast views of the East River. I think this is where my love affair with New York began. It really wasn't about skyscrapers and bustling crowds and fancy department stores. It represented the precious times I spent with my father holding his hand navigating through the streets of a city he loved and knew so well. I went on to attend high school on the Upper East Side, go to Parsons down in the West Village, work downtown and in midtown and live in Forest Hills, Queens when we were first married. I have never tired of the endless energy, diversity, beauty, strength and character New York City possesses. Now, as a mother, I enjoy my special one on one time with my daughter. I have my own stories to tell, my own places to show her, and my own hopes and dreams for her that she reaches her greatest expectations in the city that never sleeps.
This past weekend, we went to a block party in Belle Harbor, Queens. The views from the street were incredible. These are the photos I took as the sun was setting against the Manhattan skyline.
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