What I Saw on My Walk
Long solo walks are sacred to me. I love moving, exploring, and noticing beauty in the world. Here are some scenes that caught my eye during my many walks in New York and beyond. Yes, I know…touting the benefits of walking is now a well-documented cliche.
A crooked Little Free Library under the F train | Carroll Gardens, Brooklyn
An eerily empty Washington Street in March 2020, during early lockdown | Dumbo, Brooklyn
An apartment building I noticed for the circular entrance windows and 100% of the lights on | Brooklyn Heights, Brooklyn
A view of my old apartment building | Brooklyn Heights, Brooklyn
Architectural hodgepodge of my dreams | Clinton Hill, Brooklyn
Magnificent trees in Fort Greene Park | Fort Greene, Brooklyn
A pandemic panic line outside of Wegman's | Brooklyn Navy Yard, Brooklyn
The grassy medium on Albemarle is a wonderfully quiet place to sit and take a break after an eight-mile walk on a nice day. | Ditmas Park, Brooklyn
When the cherry blossoms bloom in New York, I recommend stopping on the sidewalk to look up into one for a few minutes. | Ditmas Park, Brooklyn
The famous "Japanese House" | Ditmas Park, Brooklyn
Red-winged blackbird | Prospect Park, Brooklyn
A greenhouse over a garage | Brooklyn Heights, Brooklyn
Destruction and growth in Westmoreland Sanctuary | Mt. Kisco, New York
Lilac bushes outside of an industrial building | Gowanus, Brooklyn
A disarming tree silhouette | Brooklyn Heights, Brooklyn
A Redwood tree grows in Brooklyn | Brooklyn Heights, Brooklyn
The curiously small doors of Dennett Place | Carroll Gardens, Brooklyn
Seriously, the doors are so weird. | Carroll Gardens, Brooklyn
Selfie for scale | Carroll Gardens, Brooklyn
Stopped to say hi to the sheepdogs at Herondale Farm | Ancramdale, NY
My favorite pathway in Brooklyn Bridge Park, which is just a stone's throw from my apartment at the time this was taken. It's a great birding spot and feels secluded even though it's just feet away from the Brooklyn Bridge. | Brooklyn Heights, Brooklyn
Pathway to the beach | Rockaway Beach, Queens
Walked the whole boardwalk and dipped my feet in the ocean. It was early May. Too cold for a swim. | Rockaway Beach, Queens
Belle Harbor mansions, maybe a little past their heyday | Belle Harbor, Queens
I spent a long time on this sand relief sculpture on the beach. | Rockaway Beach, Queens
Bungalow colony | Rockaway Beach, Queens
Walks in rural areas are nice for a few minutes, but I get bored easily because there are fewer interesting things to look at. Here's a shameless mirror selfie. | Olivebridge, New York
Idyllic Prospect Park day | Prospect Park, Brooklyn
A second-favorite Brooklyn Bridge Park spot | Brooklyn Heights, Brooklyn
Kayaking. Not walking. | Ancramdale, New York
Little Free Libraries are the best. | Carroll Gardens, Brooklyn
Architectural hodgepodge + roses | Boerum Hill, Brooklyn
Charming alleys of Warren Place | Cobble Hill, Brooklyn
Two swans taking off from West Pond at the Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge. Manhattan is in the background. | Broad Channel, Queens
Everyone has a few of these accidental seflies in their phones, right? Here's one from a sweaty but happy power walk across the Manhattan Bridge in the August heat. I was in contacts so I could wear sunglasses. | Between Dumbo, Brooklyn and Chinatown, Manhattan
Architectural hodgepodge. Old tenements meet new-ish construction. | Two Bridges, Manhattan
Sunset at Copake Lake. I'm another New Yorker who was lucky enough to head upstate for little breaks from pandemic life in the city. | Copake, New York
I'm fascinated by Harrison Alley, a private street with this peculiar little pink house set back at the end. | Vinegar Hill, Brooklyn
I love the optical illusion of this gravel pile. Taken on a ferry ride home after a long walk. | Brooklyn Navy Yard, Brooklyn
Golden Hour | NoMad, Manhattan
The things this alley has seen over the years... | Soho, Manhattan
A message to the garden thief | Carroll Gardens, Brooklyn
One of the best paths in Green-Wood Cemetery. It's truly magical in the springtime. | Greenwood, Brooklyn
I'm on a mission to visit all of the shortest historic streets in New York City. This one is Albemarle Terrace. | Flatbush, Brooklyn
On a Lyft ride home one evening, two particular blocks caught my eye. They were lined with brick mansions in various conditions. The structures stood out from the row houses of the surrounding blocks. I looked up this neighborhood when I got home -- it's called Millionaire's or Doctor's Row. I went back to visit by foot a few days later. | Crown Heights, Brooklyn
Row house earth tone rainbow | Crown Heights, Brooklyn
A huge house on Ocean Avenue in need of some love. A few days after I took this photo, It went on the market for a few million dollars. | Flatbush, Brooklyn
I love the Q line stations around this area. | Ditmas Park, Brooklyn
The famous Gingerbread House in Bay Ridge. It's an active residence that's about 100 years old. | Bay Ridge, Brooklyn
A mish-mosh of opulent houses lining Shore Road | Bay Ridge, Brooklyn
I spent New Years Day 2021 at the Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge. | Broad Channel, Queens
If the timing and weather worked out, I treated myself to a leisurely ferry home to Brooklyn Heights from Greenpoint after a long walk. If I was lucky, I'd catch this sunset while I wait at the ferry landing. | Greenpoint, Brooklyn
Watching the hundreds of snow geese at the refuge is a multi-sensory experience. | Broad Channel, Queens
A very cold February hike at Shirley Chisholm State Park | Canarsie / Spring Creek, Brooklyn
Architectural symphony | Financial District, Manhattan
Illuminated building at the end of an alley | Soho, Manhattan
Walking on a country road 🎶in the Rockaways | Arverne, Queens
A brick made in a centuries-old Hudson Valley brickyard on the Rockaway side of Jamaica Bay | Arverne, Queens
I love that you can find slices of rural life in the city, like in Brant Point Wildlife Refuge. The site is littered with garbage that's washed ashore, but it's getting better thanks to volunteer and community efforts. | Arverne, Queense
Surfers waiting to catch some good waves in the fog at Beach 90th St. | Rockaway Beach, Queens
The perimeter of the Brooklyn Botanical Garden looking mighty fine | Crown Heights, Brooklyn
Another architectural hodgepodge | Tribeca, Manhattan
As I snapped this photo of this overgrown lot on a very sleepy block in Vinegar Hill, a guy in a neighboring building walked out and asked me, "Wanna buy a truck?" | Vinegar Hill, Brooklyn
A tree (?) grows on the top of a building next to the Manhattan Bridge | Chinatown, Manhattan
When I lived in Brooklyn Heights, Cobble Hill Park was a frequent resting stop on my walk to the pottery studio. It's a magical pocket park that's about 3/4 of a city block. | Cobble Hill, Brooklyn
My old building is the backwards L in the middle. | Brooklyn Heights, Brooklyn
I passed by this oddball door probably thousands of times in my eight years living in the neighborhood, and this was the first time I snapped a photo. | Brooklyn Heights, Brooklyn
Vacation view | Lisbon, Portugal
In the middle of a very long and hilly walk around beautiful Lisbon, blissfully unaware I had Covid. It hit me like a ton of bricks a few hours later. | Chiado, Lisbon, Portugal
Silhouette on my Airbnb's quiet street | Seville, Spain
The balcony game is my favorite part of this frenetic city. | Barcelona, Spain
The gorgeous houses of Convent Avenue are worth the trip uptown. | Hamilton Heights, Manhattan
Took a day trip to Philadelphia in June 2023 and fell in love with the architecture. Also filled up with mild jealous rage at how far a dollar can take you in the real estate market there. | Washington Square West, Philadelphia
Federal Style row houses get me every time. | Rittenhouse, Philadelphia
Jagged Bowery hodgepodge | East Village/Noho, Manhattan
I had a doctor appointment on the Upper East Side in the morning and a dentist appointment in Soho in the afternoon. I walked from one appointment to the other and spotted a few brave holdouts. | Gramercy, Manhattan
Crazy little holdout on East 42nd Street. | Midtown East, Manhattan
6th Avenue painted ladies | Park Slope, Brooklyn
Another winter walk at the Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge | Broad Channel, Queens