Walking The High Line

We are in NYC with our friends the Hollands from Toronto. We first met them when we were on spring break in St. Croix about eight years ago. They were there with their youngest daughter Abby who is six months older than Carter. As I tend to do when we are on vacation I told Carter to go over and meet Abby so that she had someone to play with. She balked, but eventually did it.

Turned out that not only did Abby and Carter have fun on vacation, but we got to know her parents Matt and Nancy and adore them. Matt eventually became an advisor to Russ’ business and we have gotten to go on some fun trips with them for work.

Matt and Nancy are great walkers so they were up for a walking adventure today. We started by trekking downtown to the east village to have brunch at Prune. Russ and I have been big fans of Gabrielle Hamilton’s tiny restaurant ever since we first read about her in chowhound and visited years ago. Then she wrote a book called Blood, Bones & Butter — Not only can she cook, but she is a great story teller too.

We luckily only had to wait a little for a table for six and we enjoyed a decadent brunch. I had the smoked fish plate from the iconic appetizing store Russ and Daughters that happens to be across the street. It was enough smoked fish for our whole table to enjoy.

After brunch Carter who is getting a cold, left us and the remainder of the group meandered through Little Italy, China Town and the West Village to get to the High Line. The High Line is the public Park built on the west side elevated freight train line. It is an extraordinary repurposing of something that could be a detriment to a neighborhood, but now is a beautiful asset.

It was a far nicer walk above the noise of the street with beautiful gardens and interesting design. Nothing is better than good friends, good food and a good walk. That’s the high life.