A Day in the Big Apple—New York City, 8 July 2000

    Zheng Mei, a Chinese graduate student in our Center for Atmospheric Chemistry Studies at URI's Graduate School of Oceanography, successfully defended her Ph.D. thesis in late June 2000. Her topic was the sources and deposition of the aerosol in Hong Kong. In the course of being on her thesis committee and helping her get introduced to the world of atmospheric chemistry, I learned that neither she nor her husband, Xiaodong Pu (Pu Xiaodong to the Chinese), nor her mother and father (Li Mali and Zheng Wanjin), who have been staying with her the past few months to help out while she was finishing her thesis, had ever been to New York City or were likely to get the chance. So I offered to take them for a day.
    We went down on Saturday 8 July 2000. The day was picture-perfect, with gentle winds from the west, temperatures around 27 C (80 F), clear skies in the morning, and some clouds appearing only in the afternoon. We drove to Stamford, Connecticut, where we caught a commuter train to Grand Central Terminal. From there we walked across to Fifth Avenue and the New York City Public Library, up Fifth Avenue to St. Patrick's Cathedral and Rockefeller Center, then up Sixth Avenue to Central Park. From there we took the subway down to the Empire State Building, and then again to Chinatown for dinner. after our Chinese feast, we boarded the subway a third time to Times Square, and walked from there to Grand Central Terminal to catch the train back to Stamford.
    All in all, we had a great day. I took just over 90 pictures, most of which turned out quite well, considering the things that could have gone wrong with them. For those interested in photography, all were taken with my Canon Eos Rebel and Promaster 19–35-mm zoom lens, which was nearly always set at 19 mm. I used AGFA ASA 200 print film. The prints were roughly 5x7.5 inches and were scanned on an Epson Expression 800 scanner driven by LaserSoft Imaging's SilverFast Ai. But if you're not interested in all that stuff, just sit back and enjoy the beautiful pictures of an unforgettable day!

Train ride and Grand Central Terminal

New York City Public Library

Up Fifth Avenue to St. Patrick's Cathedral

Rockefeller Center

Up Sixth Avenue

A glimpse of Central Park

The Empire State Building
    Part I
    Part II

Chinatown and dinner

Times Square after dark

 

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