Brooklyn Blurs

I recently had a good chunk of time off from work and was able to go on 3 mini vacations, spend quality time in DC, and do a little relaxing. Don't worry, I'll break the craziness up into several posts so as not to overwhelm you. Or me.

As you may recall, my friend Sara and I have a goal to visit NYC every season this year and then at Christmas time. Summer schedules are a bit crazy and 4th of July weekend was the only time both of us could do it, but we didn't want to miss the 4th in DC, so we decided to just do a day trip. I tell you what, there are very few things that could have happened in those 12 hours to make the day any more incredible than it already was.

We got on a bus around 6:30 and got to New York just before 11. We jumped on the subway and headed to heaven. I mean Brooklyn.


Yep, that's right, we made it to Brooklyn. On the subway. By ourselves. I'm kinda proud seeing as the other times we've been to New York we've had someone else navigate our usage of public transportation.

We decided to document our feet everywhere we went, so here they are at the subway station.

Our first stop in in Brooklyn was Tom's Restaurant, a diner recommended to us by a friend, located just down the street from the Brooklyn Museum and the Botanic Gardens.

They bring you cold orange slices and cookies while you wait to be seated.

Our feet at Tom's.

Cherry Lime Ricky. Mmm.

Sara's Mango Walnut pancakes and my Lemon Ricotta pancakes. They give you strawberry, cinnamon, and citrus butters to top off the delicious food too.

Next up the Brooklyn Botanic Gardens. With temperatures in the mid-80's and very little humidity, this was the perfect day to wander around outside. Seriously, if you spent the day in the shade you never would have broken a sweat. Must have been the calm before the major heat wave. :/







Our feet at the Botanic Gardens.

After taking in the beauties of nature we decided to head over to Park Slope, my first choice of places to live in NYC. As we approached Grand Army Plaza, we came upon a woman who had given blood a few hours earlier and was about to pass out. Along with 3 other strangers we shaded her, got her water, and called 911. It was one of those experiences where you can't help but have a feeling of love for people, which, let's be honest, is hard for me sometimes.

After the ambulance got there and the woman was being taken care of we continued up Union St. Sara remembered there being a bunch of shops on 5th Ave. so that's where we decided to go. Several of our favorite musicians live in Park Slope and we kept joking about running into one of them. We'd point out places and say "oh, that must be where so-and-so lives!" It was a funny little game for us as we made our way to 5th Ave. We looked in a few shops and took in the scenery, including several good looking men. ;) As we crossed the street I looked into the window of a corner restaurant. I thought to myself, wow, that looks like Greg Holden. Oh wait! That is Greg Holden because there's Katie Costello! Sara thought I was joking until she saw the shocked look on my face. As luck would have it, they were getting up to leave so we pretended to be looking at a store window until they walked out. Greg recognized us and asked what we were doing there as he hugged us. We chatted for a few minutes and got their advice on where to go in the area. After taking a few pictures we told them we'd see them again next Friday at their show in Easton, MD.



Our feet + Greg and Katie's feet on the streets of Park Slope.

We were getting pretty hungry and happened upon this delicious little Italian restaurant called Peperoncino. We ate bruschetta, eggplant something-er-other, fish, and smoked mozzarella ravioli with artichokes. Oh yeah, then there was some of the most delicious coconut sorbet one could ever imagine. So good in fact, that Sara shared it with the people sitting next to us. :)

Our shadows as we walked back to the subway. I love New York.

We went and saw the Statue of Liberty from Battery Park at sunset and almost walked smack dab in to the middle of a movie shoot. You know, they really should make it a little more obvious that they're filming something . . .

Have I mentioned how much I love New York?

We had time to kill before heading to our 11:00 bus back to DC, so we headed up to Time Square. After an awesome shoe purchase (Sara's, not mine. I know you're shocked) we got an awesome deal to go to the Aveda Salon next time we're in town. Which is kind of funny because we'd talked about getting our haircut all day long. The super awesome thing about the deal is that it includes the haircut as well as 10 other salon services! Good times are ahead, that's for sure!

Tired and happy we got ourselves back to Penn Station with time to spare. The bus we took stops in Baltimore before going on to DC and I woke up as we were approaching Charm City. Sara had discovered the one thing that could have made our trip better. Being there to witness parts of this being filmed. I try not to think of the irony too much and stay grateful for a perfect day in what may very well be my favorite place on earth. I learned my lesson though. I need to upgrade my phone to a smarter one so I can read tweets that say things like, "Playing street pianos all over NYC today. First stops: Columbus Circle and Lincoln Center #playmeimyours" or "Next stop...times sq and Bryant park #playmeimyours."