Today, we decide to follow our VRBO host’s suggestions and go to Brown, a café about a block away from our apartment. It’s this cute little non-descript place with a tray of the best looking pastries this side of Europe. We sit, order Americanos and two pains en chocolat and enjoy the quiet music and pretend to be New Yorkers. The pains en chocolat are heavenly, and the coffee is strong. With food in our bellies, and caffeine in our blood stream, we take the subway up to Penn Station to meet Bekah, who took the train down from Connecticut to hang out with us in New York for a day!
We take the train down to Battery Park and Lower Manhattan to take the free Staten Island ferry. The Statue of Liberty is closed to the public (except to go to the island and gift shop, but apparently the security lines take forever and it turns it into a whole day affair), but the ferry takes you within 350 yards of it. We decided to take the ferry there and back to take pictures, to see the Statue of Liberty, and to see the Lower Manhattan skyline. It was actually quite relaxing and rather fun! We were off our feet, it was free, and we had about 15 minutes to just hang out on Staten Island before taking the next ferry back.
We had arranged to meet John’s cousin, Will, for lunch. He lives out in Brooklyn and invited us to head down that way to eat lunch at this great little restaurant. I had a delicious salad that was nice and refreshing as the weather had officially gotten hot and humid! He then takes us to this great little park, where we sit and chat, and we get to see a bit more of Brooklyn. We finish up with some delicious ice-cream, a quick trip to his apartment, and then back on the subway to Washington Square Park. Will heads off to work and we stop for a drink and a rest at the park, while taking pictures, and enjoying some initially refreshing rain, which later cranks up the humidity even more.
We hop back on the Subway, make our way to the Flatiron building, the building that John and I were the most excited to go see. We take more pix, grab a smoothie, sit in the park and relax some more. We then go drop off Bekah at Penn Station then make our way home, stopping by to get dinner. We finish the day in bed, eating pizza and beer. A great third day!
