Brooklyn

We decided to check out Brooklyn today. Every evening we decide what we'll do the next day and plot out the subway route. We were doing so well until I didn't follow-up with my co-pilot (but I won't mention any names here). Brooklyn subways are a little more complicated since there isn't an "uptown" entrance and a "downtown" entrance. Just before the doors shut, we both realized we should have gotten off. No problem - just get off at the next stop, cross over, and get to where we need to be. Well, we were going the wrong way so tried again. Anyway, we finally made it to where we needed to be (thank goodness for unlimited ride metro cards).

Our first stop was the Brooklyn Bridge. We walked across the bridge and made lots of stops to take pictures. Our one disappointment is that they are doing work on the bridge and so much of it up to the first pier has tarps covering the sides and you couldn't see anything. So, we walked across and then walked back to Brooklyn. It's such a gorgeous view of the city.

Here's a picture of the city. I could look at this for hours.

After our walk, we headed down under the bridge. There's a really nice park down there and you could get right down to the water - the East River. There's a nice paved area with lots of benches to sit on and just gaze at the city. We headed over to the Brooklyn Heights area. There are some beautiful places there. We saw one of the oldest houses in Brooklyn that was built in 1824. We also saw the house where Truman Capote lived and wrote Breakfast at Tiffany's and In Cold Blood.

This is a close-up of the Manhattan Bridge. The subway runs under the bridge.

We ate lunch at a Chinese restaurant then walked around the area more. Atlantic Avenue is a popular shopping area. We went to Mid-Eastern grocery store and bought a few groceries that were very reasonably priced. They had so many interesting things in there. We may go back since we've figured out it's not far from the local subway that comes close to our apartment. On our way to the subway, we passed a Trader Joe's and I wanted to shop there. Bought a few more things so we're set for a couple days now. There were some fruit and vegetable stores that had some things a lot cheaper than in Little Rock. We have to be careful about what we buy since we have to carry it so far. Until you're in a situation like this, you don't realize how much we depend on our cars and big grocery stores!

The subways are a great place to people watch. Nobody makes eye contact but it's interesting to watch people scan everyone with their eyes and not move their heads. You can tell the true New Yorkers by what they have with them (ipods or something to read) and they can ride without holding on as much as some of us! I've also seen a lot of women dressed up and wearing high heels! I don't know how they do it around here.

After walking just over 8.5 miles, we decided to call it a day. I have to admit we're working out the soreness from the first few days. It was an absolutely beautiful, sunny day. The temperature was in the low 70s. It gets pretty chilly at night and the landlord said they'd come light the boiler (or whatever you do with one) anytime we wanted. The cool room with lots of covers feels really good but it's hard to crawl out in the mornings!

Time to plan tomorrow so stay tuned.......

Linda and Conrad