Morning in NYC

The Curated coat (similar)
Zara sweater (similar)
Sezane jeans
Zara heels (similar)
JW Pei bag (similar)
Zara sunglasses (similar)
Madewell rings
Location: Maiden Lane – New York City, New York

We took these photos in a rush on our last morning in New York. Not a rush because we were actually rushed, but because after four days of sunshine, we woke up to grey skies and drizzle. I was not to be deterred. I’d planned my outfit and it wasn’t raining hard enough for me to be willing  to give up on capturing photos of it.

I was much too tired, on this morning, to make any real decisions. After four days of dashing around the city, walking between ten and twenty kilometres each day, I had just about enough energy left to get dressed and put one foot in front of the other. Our flight didn’t leave until late afternoon. But, exhausted and deterred by the rain, we did little more than take these photos and take the subway to the Lower East Side to get bagels at Kossar’s one last time. I managed to muster up the energy for that. A good bagel is powerful motivation for me.

When I think back now, part of me wishes that we’d done more with what was, effectively, almost a full day in the city. But, at the same time, I don’t regret how we spent our last quiet morning. I spotted this architecturally stunning but sadly rundown building on Maiden Lane, a true old New York street that  dates back to 1696, on our first day in the city. I knew I wanted to capture it in photos, and we made that happen. And then we went to Kossar’s, where the tables are sticky and covered in sesame seeds from bagels already eaten. Where they spread the cream cheese practically an inch thick between the two halves of toasted bagels, so that it leaks out deliciously on all sides. We ordered breakfast, then another half a dozen bagels for the road.

(We actually photographed the first time that I had a bagel from Kossar’s.)

Part of me wishes we’d done more. But writing that paragraph, I remember how wonderful it was just to take things slowly on that rainy morning. To enjoy my bagel, and pack the extras into our suitcase as delicious souvenirs of the city. I often put pressure on myself to make every single second of a vacation count, because I never know when we might make it back to a particular city. That pressure can be good – we do enjoy amazing vacations and come home with wonderful memories. But it also means we sometimes miss out on just experiencing a bit of ordinary life in the places we visit.

The morning we took these photos was decidedly ordinary. It was Monday. New Yorkers were on their way to work. Our companions at Kossar’s were mostly parents and their children en route to school. We experienced a bit of their everyday lives with them, and it was both a literal and lovely change of pace.

I’m sure our next New York morning, whenever it is, will be at least as frantic as they usually are. And I’ll be glad. But I can admit that, just once, I let myself do a whole lot of nothing in a big city where I could have done anything at all. And I enjoyed it. Even in the rain.

Shop the Post