Wednesday, March 27, 2013

Small Town New York City

Monday, I spent the day with my only child and her husband who both took a day off to hang with me in their neck of the woods - which is Brooklyn, NY. We ate at tiny restaurants and visited interesting, small shops, and saw a flower show at Macy's that helped brighten up a rainy snowy day.

It occurred to me that some of the places we went seem more like the way "main street" America used to feel than anywhere I have been in a long time. Small shops that specialize and do not have corporate plan-o-grams for the merchandise and restaurants that have a menu based on how the cook feels like cooking, and what is available, and - about half the shops we were thinking of visiting were closed on Monday, which is very small town reminiscent.

Not Macy's, of course. There was a crush of humanity there that was Black Friday-esque in hustle and bustle!

We went to Soho and visited boutiques that represent the designers whose names go on the work of my hosts, and we went to Purl. (More about the shopping another time.) We also went to Brooklyn General, the only fabric store that I know of that has bolts of 'new old stock' vintage cottons and Barkcloth for sale, along side the latest organics and Liberty fabrics.

We ended the day at the Brooklyn Farmacy for a very late (for me) lunch and huge ice cream sundaes.

Tuesday morning, I took the subway, then a bus and then a train to get back to Philadelphia and The Mister and we headed down the road again. We are in Yogi Bear's Jellystone Campground, which The Mister picked so we could add the Maryland sticker to the map of the US on the outside of the camper. (He would add a sticker for every state we pass through, but I say we have to have spent the night)

More adventures and visiting ahead of us, then the long drive home. Kind of looking forward to it, though..,




Brooklyn General - a wonderful shop!

Brooklyn Farmacy - famous for egg creams

6 comments:

Gaynell said...

This sounds like a trip to envy! Glad you are enjoying it!

Vic H. said...

Wow...looks like lots of fun! Can't wait to hear about the shopping...

Iron Needles said...

And did you have an egg cream? Because I did! She told me she was taking you to all the same places. (I loved the grilled cheese I had at the Farmacy.) But we didn't go to Macy's.

Allie said...

You know, I felt the exact same way when we were in NY, like it was a village instead of a huge city. It was amazing to me. I really, really need a trip to Brooklyn General, wish I'd known about that before we left!!! A good reason to go back. *G*

Michelle said...

Looksl like you're having fun! Last time we stayed at a Jellystone, we had bear tracks between the tent and car in the morning -- but that was in the Rocky Mountains.

Regina said...

So-o-o-oo-oo-oo jealous. Brooklyn is my hometown. Heard there was a resurgence of commerce and lots of urban renewal going on. Is it still hard to get a cab to go over there from Manhattan? PS: WE MISS YOU!