New York City Tour Guide

CENTRAL PARK PHOTO TOUR $79

With Sam L.

    Come to shoot in the Central Park of New York that will allow you to take home digital postcards.This tour is a great introduction to Central Park and combines views of the bridges,lakes and skyline.

    At each stop of the photo tour,I will provide you with explanations around photography（摄影）,camera settings, etc.You will be able to put these tips to good use immediately.

NEW YORK RUNMNG TOUR $50

With Sebastien B.

    Love running?Love New York?Do you want to see the sites of the city?Contact me and we'll take a special tour. All you'll need to do is to put on your sports shoes and we'll be off.I'll show you my favorite running spots along the Hudson River or north of Central Park and away from all the tourists.

    If you're thinking of training for something,I'll give you the explanations and tips to make the best of your time training!

GREENWICH VILLAGE FOOD TOUR $75

With Manhattan W.

    Discover unbelievable places to eat.This is the real Greenwich Village gastronomic（美食的）experience.Along the way,find out how the village has kept its unique character throughout the years,from the Dutch and English controlled periods to today.

Tour runs every day from 12:30 PM-2:30 PM.

NEW YORK BY NIGHT PHOTO TOUR $115

With Sam L.

    We have already prepared NYC for the most unique points for you.During the  hour walking tour,we share these special comers of NYC.

    The night tour teaches night photography techniques while discovering the "darker" side of the city that never sleeps: the UN headquarters,42nd street,Grand Central Terminal,the Chrysler Building,Rockefeller Center and Radio City Music Hall.

    After I visited my elder sister's house, I was reminded just how different the apartment living with a child was. She has a nice big house with a few floors, a big backyard and lots of toys. Her house is my son Tom's little piece of heaven. At her house there are little toys, big toys, a doll house, a play house and more! There are bedroom stocked with train tables, ride-on toys and big trucks.

    The main difference about being an apartment mom is that you cannot become a collector of “things”. I continually get rid of anything too large. When Tom was born, we made a rule that there would never be any stuffed animals in our apartment that were larger than him at that time. We also made a rule that we would only ever have at most five stuffed “anything” at one time. So far this had worked out well for us. These rules left Tom with a few special soft creatures to play with, but that can be easily put away.

    Since we want to keep the appearance of being clean city dwellers, we have limited Tom's play things to one toy basket in the main living space and one big storage bin in his bedroom. I am constantly thinking about living space when I buy anything for our little Tom. We love the storage bin in Tom's room. It is filled with fun play things. It is a place to keep his toys and everything gets pulled in and out daily. Anything that doesn't fit is often weeded out to create space.

    Tom absolutely likes going to his aunt's house and pulling out every single toy available to him. Of course, Tom does not notice that when he returns home he only gets one basket of toys instead of many rooms of toys. Right now Tom lives fully in his 1,100-square-foot apartment and seems very satisfied with his basket of toys.

    Reports tell us that Americans work more and vacation less than people in other major industrial countries. Still, millions of Americans do try to get away from home for a week or two in the summer months. Some might even have the time and money to spend longer on vacation.

    For example, many retired Americans can be found driving around the United States in big recreational vehicles, known as R. V.'s. These serve as a home away from home. In fact, it might even be their only home as they see the country.

    Some American families get in their cars and drive to historic places like Colonial Williamsburg in Virginia. There, they can experience what life was like for early Americans. If that is not exciting enough, also in Williamsburg is a water park and an amusement park with rides.

    Other Americans visit national parks like Yellowstone or Yosemite out in the West. They want to spend time with nature. Or they take their vacation by a lake or the ocean. They might swim or fish. But many just want to sit and enjoy the feeling of doing nothing, except maybe read a book.

    Some families fly to other countries on vacation. Or they go on a cruise ship (大型游轮) and stop in different ports. Cruise ships are like floating cities.

    But not everyone goes someplace special on vacation. This might be the only time for people to work on things like home improvement projects. And while they do that, they might think of all the fun their friends are having.

    Are you so sure your mistakes are just mistakes? Or could they be building blocks to a success beyond any you imagined?

    When my friend Dorothy goes home to visit her family each Thanksgiving, her mother serves the traditional “mistake salad”. The dish was born many years ago. Dorothy explains, when mother was using a cookbook to make a salad. In the process, mother accidentally included half the salad ingredients(原料)from a recipe(食谱)on the left side of the open cookbook, and half the ingredients from a different salad recipe on the opposite page. Everyone enjoyed the salad so much that she continue to serve it every year. So it was really not a mistake at all.

    Then there was the fellow named Alfred, who invented dynamite(炸药). When Alfred's brother died, the city newspaper confused the two and printed an abituary(讣告)saying that the dead's most notable act was the creation of bombs. Surprised to consider that his name would forever be connected with destruction, Alfred sought to leave a more positive fame to humanity. So he set a prize for people who contributed to world peace. Now the Nobel Prize, established by Alfred Nobel, is the most respected award in the world.

    Everything is part of something bigger, and mistakes are no exception. In his brilliant book Illusions, Richard Bach explains that every problem comes to you with a gift. If you focus only on what went wrong, you miss the gift. If you are willing to look deeper and ask for the bright, the problem will disappear. You are left only with the learning, and you go forward on your path.

    One day a very skilled artist met a beautiful woman who immediately became the object of his affections. As he observed her and spoke with her, he admired her more and more. He showered her with kindness and words of praise until she consented to be his wife.

    Not long after they were married, however, the beautiful woman found out that she was more the object of his artistic interest than of his affections. When he admired her classic beauty, it was as though he were standing in front of a work of art rather than in front of a human being to whom he had pledged his love and promised his life. And soon he expressed his great desire to put her rare beauty on canvas.

    “Please sit for me in the workroom,” he pleaded, “and I will make your beauty permanent. The work will be my masterpiece!”

    She was humble and patient as well as flattered by his words, so she said, “Yes, my love. I will be happy to sit for you.” So the beautiful, young wife of the artist sat meekly for hours in his studio, not complaining. Day after day she sat patiently, smiling as she posed, because she loved him and because she hoped that he would see her love in her smile and obedience. She sometimes wanted to call out to him, “Please love me and want me as a person rather than as an object!” But instead, she spoke nothing but words which pleased him.

    At length, as the labor drew to close, the painter became wilder in his passion for his work. He only rarely turned his eyes from the canvas to look at his wife. As he stood there gazing at his beautiful work of art, he cried with a loud voice, “This is indeed life itself!” Then he turned to his beloved and saw that she was dead!

    David Brown and Anne are two patients in the Adult Day Care Program at Mercy Hospitals. David Brown is seventy-two years old. He's friendly and likes to talk. He lives with his wife in the city. But David is becoming forgetful. His wife says, “He'll heat up some soup, then forget to turn off the gas.” She is sixty-one and still works. She is worried about leaving her husband alone.

    Anne is eighty and lives with her 60-year old daughter. Her daughter says that she needs a rest. “Mom follows me everywhere. She follows me when I read newspapers. I need a rest and she does, too.”

    And so, several times a week, David and Anne's families take them to the Adult Day Care Center. Many hospitals have this program, Patients come to the Center for a full or half day, from one to five days a week. All the patients live with their families and most are old people.

    Mrs. Carol Johnson is the director of the Center. She says, “We help the patients learn many things here. Patients have the chance to get out of their houses. Husbands, wives or grown children can work or have a rest. Most important of all, families are able to stay together.”