NYC 6-26

It could have gotten bad on Saturday, the last full day of our trip. It was my plan to visit the Fort Greene outpost of the Brooklyn Flea, and the subway directions I jotted down from the website provided insufficient details for us (mapless) out-of-towners.

Shaun suppressed his exasperation to a remarkable degree, and we saw many lovely neighborhoods on our foray deeper into the borough. The first hapless fellow we spotted after we got off our last subway asked us if we knew where the flea market he was looking for was (apparently a different one). The next lady who walked by was able to point us in the right direction...we were only about two blocks away.

The people were hip, the goods were hip, and I wanted to eat from every food booth. It was about a zillion degrees out, so Shaun immediately parked himself on the shady steps while I took a quick look around. It has to be really hot to dull my interest in shopping. It was that hot. I want to go back someday, though, and eat more.

We shared a lobster roll for lunch, something I've always wanted to try. I've never been to Maine and don't expect to anytime soon, so I figured I'd better take advantage of the opportunity. I totally want to steal the skirt from the girl behind me in this picture.

Next order of business; walk over the Brooklyn Bridge into Manhattan.

It was super windy up there. It felt sooooo good. Guys were selling bottled water out of coolers for only $1, for which I was grateful. I would have paid a lot more.

We finally landed back in Manhattan. It's a miracle I never ran into anyone/thing with all the looking up I did all week.

Our final "tourist" outing was to Battery Park. We wanted to visit the Merchant Marine memorial in honor of Shaun's grandpa Chick, one of our favorite Merchant Marines. The dramatic impact of this sculpture is greatly heightened when the tide comes in.

The Sphere, by Fritz Koenig, used to stand in the center of the plaza at the World Trade Center. The damaged sculpture has been placed in Battery Park as a temporary memorial of the attacks of 9/11.

Upon returning to our hotel, we discovered that the street had been blocked off for a market, which apparently they do throughout the city on different days. Amazing! A man with a clipboard (they are ubiquitous in Manhattan) tried to get us to come to a Comedy Central taping that evening, with offers of dinner. We, however, had plans with friends for the evening. Friends who would have presented a very real danger of upstaging any attempts at comedy on the part of the folks at Comedy Central.

Here's a somewhat humbler flea market than the one in Brooklyn, but with the advantage of being only a few doors down from our hotel. You can only see a few things for sale in the picture. That's all there was. (Overtly, anyways.) I think if they were going to go to all the trouble of putting up the banner, they could have tried a little harder to round up some wares.

The lighting isn't clear enough to see what's going on here, but this picture depicts one of my favorite "only in New York" moments. This is the lobby of our hotel, with guests and staff gathered in the bar to watch the U.S.-Ghana elimination World Cup soccer match. Across the street is this very authentic African restaurant, with an overflow crowd of Africans, watching the same game. Groans from one side of the street, cheers from the other.

After a short rest and re-group, we took the subway out to Brooklyn again.

We met up with friends (Emily and Micah McGraw) of friends (Andrew and Amanda Hamilton) whom we had never heretofore met in person. Only via blog. And the McGraws were staying in Brooklyn with friends (Matt and Lisa Bethancourt) we knew a little tiny bit (Lisa only). And we all went out for drinks at the most wonderful, wonderful Clover Club.

We all hit it off swimmingly well (or at least I tell myself that), but wouldn't it make a great movie if we hadn't? If some sort of zany antics/misunderstandings/cases of mistaken identity had arisen? For those of you who know any of us, I welcome your casting suggestions in the comments.

There could be no better finale to our NY trip than waving good-bye to these four through the subway doors. I may have even gotten a little misty-eyed.

Goodbye, NYC!