Here & There & Everywhere

This morning we caught the subway to Brighton Beach in Brooklyn;  as we rode above ground, I was glad to see some graffitied buildings as I was worried that New York was too shiny clean. 

Brighton Beach is the Little Russia section of New York and we saw lots of signs in Russian.  Some had English as well, some didn't.

Bob and I like watching the television show "Blue Bloods" and one of the episodes had Russian mobsters and part of that episode was filmed in this place:

With crime shows swimming in my head, I spotted this on the beach and thought, "is that not the body of a murdered person?"  Everyone else was thinking "is that not a homeless person sleeping on the beach?"  I was wrong; they were right.

There's a boardwalk that goes the 1/2 mile or so between Brighton Beach and Coney Island so we walked over there.  It is so much nicer than on our previous visits.  It may be that Hurricane Sandy forced the fix-up.  The carnival wasn't open for the day when we were there, but it looked great.

When we got back to Manhattan, we walked about a million steps to find another café featured on "Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives."

Guy, I'm losing faith in you!  There are white linen tablecloths, starched napkins, and the darn place is only open for suppers.  How is that a diner or a drive-in or a dive?

After cheap perogies in a nearby Polish joint, Bob went one way and I went another as I wanted to check out a couple of favorite thrift stores on the Upper East Side.  It's fun looking at second hand shoes that are $85 and $210 with brand names like Ferragamo, Gucci, and Prada.  It's also fun to watch people on that end of town.  Perhaps I'll live on the Upper East Side some day just so I can have a door like this one.

From there I went to the Central Park Zoo.  It's small and lovely and the animals look content.

What else did I see today that caught my fancy?  Unfortunately no dog walkers with more than four dogs.  But I loved this brick street in SOHO,

and this made me think of my favorite neighbor,

and I found this for Leah and Barb,

and this sign was psychic because that's exactly what I was thinking as Bob and I walked and walked and walked to find stupid "John's Restaurant & Pizza."

Tonight we went to the fourth of the five Broadway shows we're seeing.  "Let It Be: A Celebration of the Music of the Beatles" had fans who are a lot more hard core than Bob or me, but we loved the effects and the music.

We're looking forward to tomorrow as lunch will be with our Chinatown Rotary friends.