My Spring Walkabout (New York City Style)

I've been desparately longing for spring recently and after my trip to Washington D.C. last weekend for Easter, I was beyond disheartened to realize that spring had come to D.C. but not to N.Y.C. I was determined this weekend to go in search of any sign of spring that I could find in N.Y.C. and so I called up my new good friend Liz and invited her on my adventure to search out spring, even if it was the last thing I did. My brother Chris decided to come into the city at the last minute and so it was the three of us that set off on Saturday afternoon to wander through Greenwich Village on a hunting expedition, so to speak.

I don't know if I found more amusement from my new friend Liz (she's awesome), my childish glee in finding the smallest bit of green sprouting out of the ground, or the randomness that is New York. (And yes, I'm a serial comma user ... sue me.) The first thing that caught our eye was the gas station on the corner - so surprising to see in this urban jungle. We had to document it.

We wandered further on into the urban jungle and finally came across the smallest of trees sprouting itty-bitty shoots of green. Another picture taking session ensued.

Signs of spring came more and more frequently as we traversed the landscape, coming at us from the right and left side of every street. The natives in Greenwich have a curious habit of displaying spring outside their dwelling places with zealous abandon - a tradition which I will definitely want to imitate in the future.

All of the seeking for spring tired us out and we had a delightful repast at a local watering hole. The natives were out in force in their tribal dress, making for great people watching and observational study. The Greenwich Village dweller, at 2pm in the afternoon emerges after a late night of clubbing in the Meatpacking district, dons the sunglasses to hide the hungover glassy nature of the eyes, and stumbles along the street in their most trendy "I just woke up and threw this on" outfit that they probably spent an hour assembling. Said native meets up with other members of his/her tribe to relive the affairs of the evening, plan more outings, and drink mimosas, thereby taking the edge off the hangover. We non-drinking, neutral scientist types merely out in search of spring who happened to stumble upon this new society, drank our non-alcoholic, fresh-squeezed OJ in amusement.

Oh, and of course we found more spring fun on the way back to the subway.

Saying goodbye to Liz at the 8th avenue subway stop, we came face to face with a New York urban myth of gigantic proportions: the alligators in the subway. It's true - they do exist. I saw them with my own two eyes.

I am now perfectly content that Spring really is here in N.Y.C. and if I'm just patient and give it another week or two, I will be able to venture outside in open-toed shoes without fear of frostbite. Perhaps if I'm a very lucky and very good girl, I will be able to find more signs of spring out in Utah when I am there - maybe even a tulip or two.