New York City!

I kicked off my first full day on the ground with a trip to the Brooklyn Botanic Garden...I was worried that it being so late in the season—October 28th at the BBG—everything would be long past it's prime, but that wasn't the case. Heck even the things that had turned brown and dried were still beautiful.
I also made it to the New York Botanical Garden up in the Bronx.
The NYBG won my heart immediately when I spotted my book in the gift shop...
I couldn't help but move a copy over to hang with Adam and Monte...
I managed to get through the NYBG with time left to hop in a Lyft and make the jaunt up to Wave Hill, and my gosh am I glad I did! It wasn't on my "must do" list simply because I didn't think I would have the time, I had it in my head that it was a lot further north. I was shocked when I saw I could be there in under 20 minutes. I quickly fell in love with this garden...
I remember first seeing the "under construction" structure of Little Islands on a friend's Facebook post several years ago, I had to go see them for myself.

Of course the Highline was a must...
We stayed in Chelsea; the trip started as a business trip for Andrew and he gave me a short list of hotels in the area he wanted to be in (the list supplied by a coworker with NYC connections). As I read reviews and considered the pros and cons one rose to the top of the list. Why? It was in the Flower District! A block filled with retail/wholesale plant and flower vendors.
The view from our window, as we ended up at the back of the hotel (less noise for sleeping I suppose)...
And from the roof deck...
We visited the Chelsea Flea, a weekend pop-up of vintage dealers. I scored an ochre-colored mohair scarf from Saks Fifth Avenue, I'm quite in love with it.
As I mentioned, the weather was perfect!
Ornamental cabbage and kale were common seasonal street plantings around "our" neighborhood, many of them looking worse for the wear.
There were a lot of mums too...
This won for the most exuberant "jungle" sidewalk planting.
Just look at that alocasia!
I didn't see a lot of balconies, thus not a lot of balcony plantings. This one though! Very New Orleans.

There was a lot of sidewalk restaurant seating, as you might expect with COVID. I was surprised by how many places dressed things up with fake flowers and foliage...

Some went the painted route.

This was a happy subway discovery, the work of Nancy Blum.

Speaking of subway, the line that took me north to the Bronx and the NYBG had a great old station. I wonder what it looked like in it's heyday?
Just a few more street photos, like this odd display. 
And this, Billy! Yes I do adore Billy.
Chilling near the Flatiron Building...
And at Madison Square Park on our last afternoon. I have hundreds more photos to share, you'll be hearing about this trip for awhile...