Yo! I'm in Brooklyn

Joe and I have friends and family in Brooklyn, and although we're not hipsters (apparently they've taken over the borough), we took the subway over for an afternoon of pizza, beer, football, beautiful views, some more beer and some more really good food.  Not to mention hanging out with folks we know and love.

Yo!  I'm the Brooklyn Bridge

Typical selfie

Lindsay, Brian, Jessica, JoeBoy and me

We're walking around on this public space, and I noticed that there's an inscription on the steel rail surround.  I looked it up - it's Walt Whitman from his poem, "Crossing Brooklyn Ferry"...

Flow on, river! flow with the flood-tide, and ebb with the ebb-tide!

Frolic on, crested and scallop-edg’d waves!

Gorgeous clouds of the sunset! drench with your splendor me,

or the men and women generations after me!

Cross from shore to shore, countless crowds of passengers!

Stand up, tall masts of Mannahatta! stand up, beautiful hills of Brooklyn!

Throb, baffled and curious brain! throw out questions and answers!

Suspend here and everywhere, eternal float of solution!

Gaze, loving and thirsting eyes, in the house or street or public assembly!

God, how I love Whitman.

One World Trade Center - aka Freedom Tower.  Hopefully we'll get there tomorrow.

The New York Subway used to be scary, gang-riddled, graffiti-tagged, mugging central.  Today, it's clean, efficient, generally on-time, cheap, and used to get almost ANYWHERE in greater Gotham.  We walked about a block and a half from the front of our hotel on Central Park South, then $3 and 20 minutes later ended up about a seven-minute walk from Grimaldi's pizzeria in Brooklyn.  So good!  Cousin Lindsay, Joe and I went to cousin Jessica and S/O Brian's apartment after, and watched some football, then walked to a local bar for some beer and later to a farm/fresh restaurant for dinner.  I love city neighborhoods that have learned to cater to their denizens.  Communities are formed and inhabitants and services commit to relationships to uphold each other to shore up the neighborhood and ensure viability.  I love that!  That's exactly how it should work.  

Back on the subway, we were quickly whisked into Midtown in under 15 minutes.  Time for some sleep.  We're meeting up with other friends tomorrow, hopefully getting to the 9/11 museum...or maybe Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island...  Who know where the day will take us.  I DO know this:  tomorrow evening we board Emirates Air and head to Milan.  Yay!