The Road Not Taken

TWO roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;	5
Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,	10
And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.	15
I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.

                                                             

      -Robert Frost. "The Road Not Taken" from Mountain Interval

although i live in the beautiful and bustling city of New York, as a resident, i often take it for granted. until recently, although it was only 4 blocks away, i had never walked to the piers at Brooklyn Bridge Park. in fact, unless it was for something specific i.e. Smorgasburg or Photoville, i wouldn't travel to BBP much at all. 

so imagine my surprise when i found out how close Pier 6 and Pier 5 were to my apartment and how much i'd been missing out.  so what else was i missing out on? 

luckily, more and more of my friends have begun moving into the neighborhood, which means more people to explore with. which is exactly what Goldilocks and i did on a random evening after work. 

we started at Piers 5 & 6, observing the newly turfed soccer fields and the amazing view across the East River/Hudson (i don't know which one it is. i'm geographically challenged). did you know there is a whole barbecue area with accompanying picnic tables available? who needs a backyard space when i can just go grill in the park?

from there Goldilocks and began walking up towards Pier 1. there's been so many changes to the park that i never knew about. there now exists a suspension bridge to connect the Promenade to the park. 

but the most interesting finds were the secluded pathways within the shrubbery that take you from the inner walking path to the outer walking path near the water. usually i wouldn't take this kind of route because (as is probably obvious) i'm not really an outdoors girl. and dark pathways where i can't see the end don't entice me very much. but thanks to Goldilocks, i did that particular evening and learned something more to love about my park.

since then, i've been heading over to the park at least twice a week. who knows what else i'll uncover?

well, since you made the effort...

4th of July this year was pretty mellow but at the same time had that at-home appeal. i've never been that much of a fireworks fan but Coleslaw, Egg, She and i decided to camp out at Brooklyn Bridge Park and watch the fireworks. Egg was really worried about getting a good spot before the park got full and wanted to go camp out ASAP but i was starving so we decided to travel to Chinatown and grab some lunch. since i've never taken the F from Brooklyn Heights to Chinatown i called up Snoopy (my Chinatown guru since he grew up there and still lives there-or did until recently) who told us we can take it to East Broadway, and of course, invited him to lunch as well.

when it comes to Snoopy and eating in Chinatown he always opts for New Malaysia. in all honesty, yea, the food's good, but there are cheaper places in Chinatown. but since Egg and Coleslaw had never been there before, i didn't mind going. everyone who eats w/Snoopy's gotta be inducted into the New Malaysia club (Snoopy always wants to eat there. every time). after lunch, Snoopy decided to head to BBP w/us and, over Coleslaw's protests, we walked back across the Manhattan Bridge.

i'm so easily convinced sometimes. i, like Coleslaw, didn't really want to walk across the bridge (yes, i'm that lazy). however, when Snoopy mentioned we could see the Waterfalls, my immediate response was "really??" but in that excited-little-kid-someone's-mentioned-candy kind of way. as soon as Coleslaw heard that, she knew protesting was futile and started trudging along the way. my bad.

we ended up being at BBP super early and found a decent spot. word of advice: BBP doesn't get filled up until 7:30 at the earliest. it was a good picnic where we would make trips to Peas and Pickles for beers and snacks and at 1 pt, even pizza. it drizzled on and off which didn't really affect the whole event except for at the end when it started drizzling steadily for the last 30 mins. i was freezing. luckily, Coleslaw, like the good mama bear she is, had an extra hoodie for me to wear on the way home.

o, and as for the title of this post, those of you that were there know what it means. since you made the effort...

i cherish these moments

there's a girl in my Labor Law class that i can see out of the corner of my eye who seems to have a permanent frown on her face. she'd be more than decent looking if it wasn't for that perpetual sourpuss expression. such a turn off.

anyways, if you've never done it before, you must go to Brooklyn Bridge Park and attend Movies in the Park. altho i'd been invited before, i never went until this past summer and only b/c they were playing 1 of my favorite movies, Stand By Me. it's been a few years since i've seen it and then to see it again for the 1st time at BBP was amazing. the movie itself's amazing and brings back rushes of nostalgia and then to get to watch it outdoors w/the Brooklyn Bridge behind the movie screen is pretty impressive.

initially i had a whole crew showing up to watch the movie but as the day approached (as always) ppl started falling through left and right. but that didn't stop Kiks from bringing the most amazing picnic spread i'd ever seen for what ended up being the 2 of us: cheese, potato salad, chips and salsa, veggies and dip. the highlight was the fudgey home-made brownies. according to Tiffany, the brownies were the equivalent of Carebear kisses. the sprinkles on them really did make them look like it. the only thing i contributed was a bottle of wine and a couscous salad. it was an exorbitant amt of food and luckily Coleslaw, Snoopy and Kik's new man ended up joining us later to help out.

Kiks and i were there around 6:00 pm altho the movie never starts until after it gets dark which meant around 8:00 pm. as the sun went down you could easily see the lights from the Brooklyn Bridge and the park lawn slowly got filled. when you're watching the movie in this kind of setting, depending on who you're there w/, it can either be really romantic or, if you're w/friends, especially watching a movie like this, it feels like 1 of those precious and memorable moments, sort of akin to what's going on in the movie.

beautiful days

it's the start of the summer weather, which (before this ginormous heatwave) was so pleasant and a welcomed change from the cold weather. in celebration of such, Egg and i went to the Brooklyn Bridge Park for a picnic w/some friends.

before i did that i had to stop and pick up my glasses from an apartment close to k-town (i'd left them there the previous weekend when me and the girls had gone over to hang out). i'd been suffering through the week because i couldn't see distances. while there, i stopped into Han Ah Reum, my favorite korean grocery store to pick up...the giantest combination of sashimi ever. it was so delicious. i didn't eat it until later that night for dinner.

Coleslaw and them had been at the park for at least 2 hrs before Egg and i got there but there was still plenty of hummus and crackers, cherries, pretzels and potato salad for us to snack on. Egg and i had stopped at the market in DUMBO and picked up a 6-pack of Kronenberg and some sliced pineapple (amongst my favorite fruits). the park was pretty crowded w/ppl playing frisbee and tossing the football but it was perfect weather and as always the view is beautiful.

afterwards we walked through DUMBO looking for a milkshake but Bubby's was closed and the Brooklyn Ice Cream Factory had a line that was insanely long-and i mean insane. longer even than the lines i've seen for Pinkberry in the summer. we eventually sidled up to Montague Street and stopped into Haagen-Daz instead. i made the mistake of getting their soft-serve which was more the density of very frozen yogurt. not yummy.

it was a perfect comfortable summer lazy day that ended w/drinks at Brazen while DRC and Cubed watched the Pistons vs. Celtics game.

DUMBO

so, a little bit ago, on a beautiful summer saturday, Egg invited me to go out to Brooklyn Bridge Park which is located at the Brooklyn side of the Brooklyn Bridge in DUMBO. i'd never been before, so Egg and i wandered over. the park is actually very beautiful and the view is gorgeous. while we were there we saw at least 3 different wedding parties posing for wedding pictures, getting that perfect NYC Brooklyn Bridge background.

the weather was sunny w/a bit of a breeze so we just laid out and Egg read his book while i listened to my iPod and took a nap. such a pleasant way to spend time outdoors.

afterwards, we walked toward the other end of the park and watched a bit of the show they were presenting which was very Cirque de Soleil. we slowly meandered back to Feil, passing Bubby's, where we will definitely go and eat at some point b/c when we peeked in we saw some of the biggest burgers i'd ever laid eyes on, and Jacques Torres. apparently Jacque Torres is a famous chocolatier. walking into the shop was like walking into chocolate heaven. they had adorable homemade cookie sandwiches (peach, banana, vanilla, chai and mint flavored options) and the most attractive item was their frozen hot chocolate. you can choose between wicked (infused w/mexican chili) and classic. Egg ordered a classic and i guess there was a run on them b/c the guy making them ended up making extra. so Egg asked to have the extra one and they gave it to him for free! score free drink for me! and it was delicious.