SATURDAY
Was up at 8:30a.m. and the view from the 43rd floor had changed:
Headed out the door at 9:30a.m all bundled up and ready to tackle the snow and winds. First sign that things had changed overnight was a car being pushed up the street, in front of my hotel, that could not gain traction in the snow on its own. Walked up to Broadway and not much traffic out. Sidewalks were being cleared in front of many office buildings but intersections were starting to become a challenge due to snow accumulating.
Federal Hall:
Stopped at a Starbucks for hot chocolate and the Department of Sanitation snow plows were in action as I left.
Walked up Broadway to the Sheraton Tribeca on Canal Street. Didn’t notice I passed right by it as my GPS was running a little behind and no visible street-level signage. Had to backtrack and ended up taking over an hour to get up there. Snow was beginning to accumulate and I’d have snow up to my knees crossing some intersections. Sidewalks weren’t doing much better and not as many were cleared up here as they were in the financial district. Many sections had snow paths allowing one person at a time to get by without going into deeper snow.
Met
EastBay1K at the Sheraton where he is enjoying an upgrade to a suite. From there off to Chinatown for lunch. He had a seafood noodle dish and I had shrimp with noodles. Spent a good two hours here watching the snow being blown around. Our first restaurant stop was closing due to the travel conditions (all buses stopped at noon) and would only do take-out which wouldn’t work for us with the cold weather. We looked for something that wasn't empty and settled on Old Shanghai Deluxe which had a couple guests inside.
Tom:
EastBay1K:
While having lunch the restaurant was filled with emergency alert tones activated on cell phones. We were alerted that a city-wide vehicle travel ban would being at 2:30pm. Snow was clearly becoming much heavier and the winds were not letting up.
Side street off Canal Street - barely passable:
Canal Street:
Got the subway down to Whitehall/South Ferry ad came out across from the Staten Island Ferry. Walked through the financial district and back to my hotel, arriving at 4p.m.
Trinity Church, a block from my hotel:
Standing in the middle of Trinity Place:
Very fortunate that I have a cafe and a pizza place on the same block as the hotel, so won’t need to venture far tonight. Just too much snow now to safely maneuver around on foot. I was walking down the street in parts of the financial district as the sidewalks were just not clear enough to traverse.
Snow expected to clear out by 10pm tonight. Over 20 inches at JFK today so far.
Photos for this section continue here:
https://tom911.smugmug.com/Travel-US...-sno/i-VhZ5Nvn