Sunday, November 30, 2008

South Street Seaport

My mother in law was visiting over the Thanksgiving weekend and since it's been a while since she has been to NYC, we took her on the grand tour of various sights in the city. One of the stops that we made was the South Street Seaport.
The South Street Seaport is a historical site in the city. This is where Fulton Street meets the East River. It's located in Lower Manhattan, just next to the Financial District. It has the highest concentration of restored 19th century commercial architecture in the city. Apart from that, it's also the location for the South St Seaport Museum as well as the famous Fulton Fish Market (now renovated into an upscale mall).

There are also many restored ships on display at the South Street Seaport. Among them are the Peking, a four-master Braque, which was built in 1911 and the Ambrose, a 1908 lightship. We also saw the W.O. Decker tugboat that was built sometime in 1930.

The South Street Seaport is also the best place to get a panoramic view of Brooklyn as well as the three bridges that links Manhattan to Brooklyn. They are the Manhattan Bridge, Williamsburgh Bridge and the ever so popular Brooklyn Bridge.

For those who wants to catch a cruise to see the Statue of Liberty or just to see the sights along the waterways, the Circle Line Cruise ticket booth is also on Pier 16 at the South Street Seaport. Avoid the long lines at Battery Park, this is a better place to catch a cruise.

You can find a lot of talented street performers on the piers too. They can range from a one man band act to hip hop dancers to really good jazz singers.

There are a lot of seafood restaurants and trendy cafes at the South Street Seaport area. Fresh seafood, good coffee and you can even dine al fresco to enjoy the view when it's not too cold out. I also like the quaint little shops that line the piers. It can be really fun to slowly browse through all the shops on a nice summers day.

The three of us had a great time watching street performers and just walking along the piers, enjoying the day. Look out for more posts about the other places we visited and things we did that day!

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