around the world!

well, if manhattan was the world, we would have made it.  we took ourselves on a bike tour of the island on friday (and my knee can testify of that truth).

first stop was a monument at 86th...

we rode down to battery park, lunched in front of the statue of liberty (not sure how i missed taking pictures of the lady!),

checked out branden's building where he interned this summer (the US customs house) and checked out the south seaport

made our way up to the brooklyn bridge, and went all the way up to 72nd street, where we cut across and went up through the park.

thoughts....
1) the lower east side was incredibly industrial, lots of large warehouses and abandoned parking lots.
2) the bike path was an afterthought in some areas.  there were moments where we were literally inches from the water and inches from the east side highway.  
3) the river front on the west side is gorgeous and they have spent a lot of time and money on the parks and the bike path/walkway.
4) there are more pot holes on the east side's sidewalk than there were on the west.  not sure why.  but it is apparent that they had invested more money on the west side than the east.
5) there are so many different sides to this city, it's no wonder that they film a lot of movies here.  you could go 5 blocks and have a completely different neighborhood with different buildings, different stores, and different feel.  it was amazing to go from the projects to the UN area.  like going into a different country.