Summer in the City

You may wonder why we would head to New York City at the height of summer, and you'd definitely be justified in wondering that. As it happened, a very good deal on a hotel presented itself, and with the Mrs. getting ready to embark on grad school in September, we weren't sure if/when we would be able to take another such trip, so we just decided to go ahead and do it. After a few short hours in the city, though, I found myself thinking that I probably want to avoid going back there during the hot months unless there's a good reason.

At home, my approach to dealing with the hot-and-humid is to be outside as little as possible, which, thanks to the advent of things like GPS bus tracking, works pretty well when commuting and working in a nicely chilled office. But in Manhattan, you tend to do a lot of walking, and even when it is possible to avoid the heat, you inevitably find yourself heading down into a subway station at some point, which is a lot like being parboiled in asphalt.

We spent a fair amount of time ducking into stores to cool off for a few minutes, but I was somewhat surprised to find that many places have rather feeble air conditioning. Nonetheless we persevered, going back to the hotel to take showers before heading back out to get sweaty again.

I thought about my previous visit, the day trip I took in March with the Proper Bostonian. It was just below 40 degrees that day, and walking down Fifth Avenue toward Washington Square we were pummeled by a stiff wind. I know this makes me somewhat odd, but I prefer the bluster and cold to July's slow-roasting.