2,811.18 Miles to Our Son's Place in Brooklyn: Estimated Driving Time 42 hours, 8 Minutes
We decided to fly.
To all of you parents who still know exactly where your kids are when you go to bed each night, it is a concept that is hard to grasp when they are little...that one day you will have to fly over five hours to see your kid. Parenting little kids is so tough that it feels like it will go on forever, but you know it's just short-term, in the total scheme.
Colin and Anne moved to NY from Minneapolis 18 months ago. Drove a truck with all their stuff to their new flat, third floor of a Brownstone in Brooklyn. There are about 10 steep steps that take you to the front door of this Brownstone. Odd, tilted-back steps. Then up two narrow flights of wooden stairs to their flat. They did it themselves. No movers, just Anne and Colin. After climbing those steps several times, I can't believe Colin didn't make a bigger deal out of that complex achievement.
Showing his Pa the view. His whole street and the view beyond is like one big "A Tree Grows in Brooklyn." Leafy, fresh greens sprouted above the streets. The effect was charming.
On every corner delis or wine shops or restaurants beckoned. It felt rather like neighborhoods in London. Lots of pedestrian street traffic...constant movement. So very different to my corner of this Canyon and because of that, just wondrous to experience.
We arrived late on Thursday night and Colin took Friday off work. The agency he works for (an ad agency that has an environmental slant...very cool) encourages their employees to take a day off when family visits. Encore cool. We took a taxi from our hotel in the Financial District/ Battery Park/ fronting the Hudson/ a block from the old World Trade Center over the Brooklyn Bridge to Colin's Cobble Hill flat and worked out a loose plan for the day.
The plan appeared to be Let's Walk At Least Seven Miles from Cobble Hill to Dumbo (acronym for down under the manhattan bridge), Where We'll Get a Coffee, Find a Way to Get Up to the Brooklyn Bridge, Walk Across It and Then, Hey, It's Only Another Mile so Let's Walk to China Town for Lunch. Here's what it all looked like.
If you look hard, you can see the Brooklyn Bridge way in the distance. It had rained an hour earlier, but the sky and our spirits were clearing nicely. I still had no idea that we were going on such a huge walk.To be continued...
posted by Lin @ 9:26 PM
4 Comments:
Very cool! The trip, the walk, Colin's job!
So that's where you've been....oh (sigh) New York....Anyway, welcome back.
As the parent of small children now, no, I cannot imagine having to fly 5 hours to see them. I only need to walk 5 steps to their rooms!
My brother used to live in the Carroll Gardens section of Brooklyn in a brownstone. It was very neighborhood-y too, bagel shops and bakeries on the corner, mothers and nannies pushing strollers. I could almost imagine living there myself! However I think it was a long way from Chinatown because when we did go we took the subway.
Sounds like you had a great trip. Your son and daughter-in-law are a couple of hardy souls to do that entire move themselves.
You sound like a cool mama. When they grow up, I hope I have as good a relationship with my kids as you do with yours.
And how cool is that about your son's job, and their encouraging workers to take a day off for family! Every company in the country should take note.
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