New York Trip Post: Day 4: Brooklyn and Staten Island

It's hard to believe our week is almost gone. While at times it seemed to go by fast, it really was a good pace and I don't think we ever felt too rushed, other than trying to see everything on the list. I'd say the one disappointment is that it was so hot, we weren't overly hungry and didn't try many of the food/drink places on our list. 

On our fourth day we decided to start out with a coffee from Kava Cafe which was right around the corner from our hotel. Let me say this, coffee shops on my girl's list are not the kind that really serve "sweet" coffee drinks, which, uh, is what I like. Thankfully the baristas helped me find something I'd like each time. 

(This girl was a great travel buddy..so was her friend) 

Once we were fueled we headed towards Brooklyn. I think I mentioned before that there were a few days we got a little messed up with what subways to take. This was one of those days. I think at one point we ended up in The Bronx, but never left the subway station. Oh my! Here's the thing, if you are in one part of Brooklyn, but then want to go to another part, it is very likely you will take the subway back over to Manhatten and then take another train back across to Brooklyn....yah, confusing...AND....how in the world they build those subways under the water. The other time, we were trying to go downtown and ended up on an uptown train (to the Bronx). Not where we wanted to go.

(when you use your pass, if for some reason it doesn't work, you're locked out for 15 minutes...yep, someone got locked out)

Okay, so, we finally find our way to Brooklyn. First stop was the Brooklyn Bridge of course. It's so fun when you see things on TV or other posts and then get to visit there yourself. And at the same time realizing that we have just as beautiful of places here in our own backyard. We walked half the bridge, took pictures, saw the sites and then decided to head further up to a popular bagel shop, called The Bagel Shop that was known for their rainbow bagels. 

When we planned our trip to Brooklyn we checked the map for locations we wanted to see in relation to the subway lines, because you do not want to waste time getting on wrong trains or jumping all over town and back again. Once we had that established, we knew the order we wanted to see things. Again, we did a lot of walking here as well, my feet survived though they were sure tired and sore. From the bagel shopped, we walked to a coffee shop called Super Crown Coffee, which had a great vibe. Brooklyn reminded us more of some of the Portland neighborhoods we see a lot. 

From there we headed back down to the waterfront where we relaxed, saw a few more sites, then took a bus to catch the Subway back to Manhatten. Once in Manhatten we headed to the ferry terminal to catch the Staten Island Ferry (which is free). I honestly think next time I might pay to take the Ellis Island ferry or tour or whatever it is because honestly the Staten Island Ferry was like fighting a bunch of lemmings for who was going to jump off the cliff first. Everyone crowding and rushing to get on. We had to hold onto each other to make sure we didn't get separated. However, we did get a "front row" view and some great pics before we moved so someone else could see. Once you got to Staten Island, you got off and basically turned around and got on the next ferry back. It was interesting to say the least. 

This yacht had a helicopter on it...who are these people.

Once back on the dry land of Manhatten, we headed back up towards the hotel. I think we ate Italian this night, but I don't remember. Either way, one of the last two days we ate at Don Giovanni's Italian Ristorante. Oh my. Very good! We asked to sit outside even though the skies were looking iffy. The waiter kept checking on us and let us know that should it start to rain they had a table set aside for us inside..there was another family outside too. Sure enough about 15/20 minutes later we felt the first drops, and as we started gathering our food, the waiters came out and helped us get everything inside. That is great service. They had been watching. It thundered and a bit of lightning and when we were done we ran, laughing two blocks back to our hotel. I think we worked off our food. It was a short thunderstorm but it felt refreshing. The rest of the evening we just relaxed. 

 Brooklyn. Quite a bit different than Manhatten

With Joy Unquenchable,