Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn - 10 kilometres walked
When I was a kid there were many movies and shows set in New York City. And the city was typically portrayed (probably not unfairly) as a bleak, dangerous, and hopeless place where gangs ruled the streets, riding the subway was a deathwish, graffiti plastered every surface, and unbroken windows were a rarity. I don't know how much of that was true, but with my worldview limited to the few square miles between the 7-11, the big hill, the government grain elevators, the railroad tracks behind the apartment buildings, and St. Mark's Elementary (my Dear Watson...) school, all located around our home in Fairhaven, Saskatoon, I just had to go with what I saw on TV.
Well, the New York City of today is nothing like that. It is safe, clean, progressive, fun, and full of tourists. It is also very big. NYC is composed of five separately governed boroughs: Manhatten, Statten Island, Brooklyn, Queens, and the Bronx, with a combined population of 8 million people, making it by the largest city in US by far.
We had a light breakfast then got on the water and into the dock where we walked a few blocks to catch a bus headed north. For some reason we decided to get off the B44 bus we had correctly caught, thinking we needed the B44 SBS, which I think is actually the same bus. But it was all good - if you want to walk over 10 kilometres every day you can't be ass-surfing busses and subways all the time.
We walked until we found a bagel and coffee shop, and the stready stream of Jewish people coming and going confirmed it as a good bet. We enjoyed hot drinks and a snack then continued our walk to a subway station where we rode into downtown Brooklyn for Ana to hit the giant Marshall's store she had noticed the other day. While she was popping tags, Dad and I unsuccessfully attempted to break into the Barclay Center to see what we could find, but all we found were locked doors so we walked the surrounding Atlantic and Flatbush areas looking for food or beer or both.
At a corner Yemeni bodega we picked up a pudgy, sultry falafal wrap for pre-lunch and split it down the middle as we sat at their single outdoor customer table watching the world swirl around us. We then scoped out an Israeli restaurant called Miriam for proper lunch then wandered around aimlessly until Ana found us. We led her to Miriam, she approved of the menu, and we enjoyed a spectacular long lunch, nearly on our own as the packed lunch crowd had dispersed.
On the return trip Dad found a really nice seat on the subway and wondered why nobody had taken it. I snapped this photo as it contains a hidden clue to solve the mystery.
Back at the boat we were too full from lunch to eat a big meal, so instead we snacked-up in the cockpit, had several rounds of happy hour bevvies, and put our bets in for the results of tomorrow's Canadian election.
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