BROOKLYN!
May 2012

With Josh and I unemployed, I'm sure galavanting around the country seemed a little irresponsibly indulgent... well... everyone is allowed their opinion ;)  

Josh's oldest sister, Sarah, lives in Brooklyn, NY with Pahu and their daughter Calliope and when Josh saw a great deal on a direct flight we jumped at the opportunity for a no frills family visit.  I have been to upstate NY and to visit Melanie in Buffalo, but have yet to get anywhere close to Manhattan until now!  Brooklyn reminds me of Oakland, just a subway ride away from the fancy big city, it has a lot of culture and fun with just a bit more of a chill vibe.  We arrived on their doorstep Friday morning (after a red eye it was about 4am our time) just as the family was finishing up breakfast and heading out the door to work and school.  Josh and I opted for a nap. Rolling out the door a few hours later, Josh and I decided to stroll the neighborhood for lunch, then went to Josh's favorite pub the nearby Moe's.  A nice chill afternoon and then met Sarah and Calliope for dinner.  The next morning Josh and I took Calliope out for coffee so Mom and Dad could have a lazy morning in peace.  Calliope was essential in helping us find good coffee - she has a fantastic memory and remembered her Dad had said it was the good coffee place.  SF's Blue Bottle in Brooklyn, woo woo!  She also took us to a bookstore and introduced me to the cutest children's books "Fancy Nancy" - love them!  It was then time to head to the nearby park for Calliope's May Fair Day festivities.  Check out the perfect little linen dress she's wearing?  Thank you Aunt Shelby ;)  (picked up  the dress at the market stores in San Antonio).   They made flower wreath head bands and each grade sang a different song and danced around the May Fair Pole celebrating Spring.

That evening the neighbors took Calliope with them to the museum and dinner so Pahu and Sarah could have a night out with us!  It was so funny... as we headed out the door, Pahu said he needed to take their dog Scarlet down with us real quick and he'd run her back up.  As we all walked down the steps into the street, Sarah darted across the street and from behind a car waved frantically for us to follow.  Looking down the block we saw the neighbors walking back with the kiddos and heard "oh hey kids! Look up there, what's that!?" LOL!  Parent to parent hook up, we hid with no shame as it would be an event to run into Calliope and explain we were off to have fun without her.

Sunday we all went to Central Park!  Every other day we were in NY it was overcast, a little cool and sometimes misting, but Sunday was a sunny, blue skies, perfect temp day!
 Starting at Columbus Circle , we strolled about, got hot dogs from a park vendor and plopped in the huge grassy field with about 1,000 other like minded folks.  After that break, we headed over to the carousel, saw the famous Bethesda fountain, stopped for a cocktail at the Boat House (my favorite part), climbed around on the Alice in Wonderland statue and got ice cream.
Josh and I parted the family and wound our way back to the west side and stopped for a beer and to rest our feet.  As we got on the subway Josh realized we were only one stop away from Time Square and suggested we hop off and go see it since it was my first visit to NYC.  I have to say... how disappointing.  LOL.  I'm not shocked really.  It seems the more you travel you experience the sites that have been glorified by movies.  Sometimes they are still, if not more, amazing and an example for me would be having seen the Eiffel Tower twinkle up at night, it's better in person.  Time Square is very small, very garish with consumerism slapping you in the face left and right and feels like a dead end where you witness tourists milling around looking a bit hypnotized.  It was on the life list to see and of course I am grateful to have had the chance!

Calliope's May Fair Day & Central Park

Walking over the Brooklyn Bridge to NYC

 Monday the gang had to go to school and work respectively so Josh and I were on our own.  On my to-do list was to walk across the Brooklyn Bridge.   I highly recommend, but it may not be as fun for most people.  I liked using the historic bridge to get from Brooklyn into the city for an afternoon, it was on the list of things movies didn't ruin for me :)
As we walked I was happy that at a non commute time the bridge wasn't all that crowded so photo ops at the different views of the city weren't making us annoying tourists.  Poor Josh who hates looking like any version of a tourist is such a trooper because he knows how much I love photos!  I mean I do my best not to be a loathsome tourist and I don't love looking like one, but I'm not going to miss out on my photo memories just because I'm embarrassed to admit that I am just visiting your cool city.

 As we entered the city we just strolled about ending up on the financial district side, happened upon the WTC site and decided not to stand in the very long line to get ID'd just to get in the other line to go through the construction site to see the waterfall monument.  I saw a photo of it and it looks really beautiful, but I am taking my chances I'll visit NYC again when maybe it's an open city landscape and see it then.   We walked by the wall street bull - did anyone else thing that it was in the middle of a plaza of skyscrapers or at least in an open area in front of a skyscraper?  Darn movies... I swear they make it look that way.  Anyway it surprised me that it was on a median in the middle of the street.   Josh had the great idea to take the Staten Island Ferry to get a closer glimpse of the Statue of Liberty since it was free!  On the walk there through Battery Park, we saw the immigrant statue and The Sphere Monument which originally was a sculpture by the WTC (I thought it was moving).

High Line Park and then stopped for recommended cupcakes!

Tuesday afternoon Josh and I went back into NYC and walked the High Line, a 1 mile park built on an old part of an elevated railroad.  It was really cool and I loved the repurposing and beautification of it all.  At the end of the track we were planning on going down to street level and walking another mile to a cupcake place Pahu recommended, but we were forced to go all the way back to the beginning of the rail line to use the bathroom, which had us 2 miles from the cupcakes.  I'm not sure why we opted to walk and not hop back on the subway... I personally enjoyed walking the streets of New York, but Josh had a mission and was walking too fast so I blame him for my sore feet!  I was rewarded with a pretty good cupcake so I guess I can't complain too much (Cupcake Cafe).

Brooklyn Botanic Gardens

After cupcakes we headed over to SoHo for some browsing.  You have to venture off the main strip in SoHo and go down the smaller streets to find unique shops.  The main strip has all the stores in major city has so it's unless you just want to say you went shopping in SoHo, even though it was at Bebe or Banana, quickly get off that main street.  We didn't really have the spending power to be shopping anywhere, but I enjoyed popping into a few unique shops then relaxing at a neighborhood pub.  Josh and I headed back to Brooklyn to meet Pahu, Sarah and Calliope at the Botanic Gardens.  The flowers were just brilliant and really popped under the grey, gloomy sky.  I was a little disappointed we missed the cherry blossoms by a few weeks, but it seemed everything else was in bloom.  We stopped for a snack at the cafe in the park, apparently the whole reason Calliope loves the gardens.  If you ever go, they really do have quality food and nice healthy options, I'm with Calliope ;)

That night was our last night so Sarah & Pahu stayed up as late as they could.  We would be getting a car in the wee hours of the morning before they would even be up.  It was such a great visit!!  I feel like I got to see and do so much all for free, yay!  My favorite thing was definitely getting to know Josh's family better and I know I'll get to visit again.


THANKS SARAH, PAJU & CALLIOPE for hosting us and making our visit so nice!

Chillin' at Sarah & Pahu's