By Friday morning we were both exhausted and instead of going back to New York City to roam around and catch all the small things we’d missed, we decided to spend some time in Brooklyn. We started with the intention of walking through some boutiques and maybe stopping for a drink here and there, but then we found $2 PBRs on draft and we ended up staying for a couple of beers while playing 90′s Trivial Pursuit.
After the bar Stephanie had to go home and deal with a work emergency and Porter had to get to the airport for a tournament in Minneapolis. Wes and I wandered through the main streets near the apartment. There were beautiful churches and buildings every where. And in between that ridiculously expensive boutiques. Remember Marlena? We found a boutique that carried the terrariums and one was priced at $300. Granted it was a lot bigger than Marlena’s little world, but still. $300 for rocks, dirt and moss.
I don’t know what they’re selling, but I will buy it
That evening we had tickets to the rooftop movie, which I thought was going to be just one movie on a roof but turned out to be mini-documentaries on a roof. The first half was pretty nonsensical and I wondered why we had spent money to come there (Coop: “I told you!” even though she actually hadn’t said anything of the nature. Coop: “I thought it anyway!” which is hardly the same thing as warning a person about something but whatever.), but the second half was enjoyable. And the tacos we brought in from a local Mexican restaurant were pretty delicious.
Brooklyn Sunset
There was talk of a bar afterwards but once again we were exhausted and just wanted to sleep so we all made our way to our separate beds with plans to meet up the following morning for a little local market shopping and a trip to the flea market.
Coop dazzling us with her vegetable knowledge
The Dekalb Market has the makings of a great Saturday morning, but it’s still in its infancy and we were there for over an hour after it was supposed to open before it really got started. Still, the coffee was good and the breakfast sandwich that we had was so fucking good. I’m still bummed that I wasn’t ballsy enough to ask the chef for his biscuit recipe even though he totally told me he would give it to me.
Behold the deliciousness
This picture was mostly for Coop’s benefit, but it was so good that I would have probably looked like that even had she not had the camera pointed at me
After Dekalb we headed for the Brooklyn Flea market where we found a lot of cool stuff that was mostly overpriced. It’s where Coop went back to get me my sweet Flea Bag.
I told him to buy it but he felt a picture would suffice
After the flea market we had some downtime before the BBQ to celebrate my birthday began. Steph and Kenie were nice enough to host at their place.
Jalapeños straight from the garden
Jalapeño poppers
There were a few really dark peppers that turned into crazy hot jalapeño poppers. I managed to grab the hottest one and look like a fool when I yelped out in pain while everyone else was happily chomping on theirs.
The whole spread: burgers, watermelon, pesto pasta salad
Cannoli, of which I had one of each but only because Coop is allergic to chocolate and couldn’t have any. I totally took one for the team.
After cannoli we realized it was 11 o’clock and that we had to be awake at 4:30 am to catch our 7 am flight. We sure do know how to pick flights. We said our goodbyes and left. When we woke up the next morning it was only 10:30 pm in Hawaii and we were in for a really long day of travel.
The worst part about vacation is not coming home. It’s two weeks later when you realize that you’ve been home longer than you were away. It’s six months down the road when you realize it’s been six months since you last saw that person. I had so much fun in Brooklyn and though I love my parents I think part of the reason is because I got to spend time with just Porter and Coop and Wes. That has never happened before. It makes me even more eager to get off this island and live closer to family. Until then, though, I guess I’ll just settle for the holidays we can all manage to spend together.
You will get some quality time with JUST the Peterson family this summer and I can’t wait!!