New York City

I first visited New York City when I was ten.  I've visited it a few times since then, but I always felt like I was just scratching the surface.  I imagine you'd have to live there a while to actually know the place. (I lived in London, England, for eight months and got to know it pretty well.) I'd especially like to see the non-touristy areas like the outer boroughs.

I like some of the museums, of course.  My favourite part of the Metropolitan Museum of Art is the section with the American paintings and sculptures.  Central Park is colourful, at least in the daytime.  I only visited the World Trade Centre once before its destruction. (I could take it or leave it.) And I liked the Cloisters, and walking on the middle of the Brooklyn Bridge.

And of course, there's the theatre.  Thirty years ago I saw Kathy Bates and Anne Pitoniak in the play Night, Mother.  More recently I saw the musical Chicago there.  New York could use something like London's National Theatre, with government subsidy.

My sister Moira doesn't care so much for the city.  She says her only reason to visit there would be to eat a big New York breakfast, and there are places that serve it here in Toronto.  I can understand that feeling.  I remember seeing a digital clock in Manhattan that showed the time to the tenth of a second! (Just looking at it would put you in a hurry.) That's the New York touch.