Brooklyn, NY

My brother moved from Manhattan to Brooklyn this past year. The last time we were in the Big Apple, Aeneas was about 6 months old and Patrick only 3. It was time to pay the man a visit and to meet our new Doggie cousin, Buddy.

Zeb and Carrie live only 2 blocks from Prospect Park in a beautiful little neighborhood. It’s perfect for having a dog and there’s really great coffee right around the corner, even if the baristas are a bit “Grumpy.” 😉 Zeb and I ate breakfast at a nice little spot a few blocks away and was introduced to avocado toast and salad to start the day. It was so good, I went back again with Justin a few days later and ordered the exact same thing.

The boys had lots of snuggle time with Buddy and tree climbing in the park. They loved seeing what it was like to live in the city.

We scored some really good sushi one night with both Zeb and Carrie. And then spent an afternoon with Carrie tooling around the park in a dune buggie bike. We rented Carrie a cruiser so she could keep up but it turns out she could have lapped us 3 times. The rentals were for an hour and we at first, thought that wasn’t going to be enough time to be fun. Made of solid steel, these things weighed as much as a Volkswagon bug. Imagine pedaling a small car in 95 degree weather and 90% humidity. The one loop around the park was enough to make us delirious in our exhaustion. We didn’t actually hit any dogs or people but we came close a couple of times. The next time we do that, it’s gonna have to be in January.

We played in the splash pad with about 200 other families to cool off and come back to our wits and then we grabbed lunch at the Smorgesburg food festival. There was quail egg and bacon breakfast on a stick and raindrop cake among other strange and delicious foods to choose from. I think we tasted the delicacies of 6-7 different vendors. Patrick had ice cream.

“How is it?”

“It tastes like soap!”

“Did you order rose water flavor?”

“Yep. Yuck.”

Ha! Lesson learned! Aeneas’s “cake” turned out to look like soap. Neither were impressed but the drinks and real food more than made up for it.  I’m proud they are adventurous in their food choices.