Ferries and Food

We had a lovely Sunday of good views and good food  a few weeks back when we got the East River Ferry to Brooklyn for the weekly Smorgasburg food festival. 

 When we came back 15 minutes later all these doughnuts were gone. 

Which I'm still feeling very sad about.

 Dave's new favourite thing - maple glazed bacon sticks

 My favourite - spicy chicken buns.

The location is lovely, right under the Brooklyn Bridge with lots of riverside spots to sit and enjoy your snacks

  

The main challenge was deciding what to eat! We managed mini hotdogs in pretzel buns with spicy ketchup (good snack), spicy chicken buns (amazing), a maple bacon stick (just for Dave!), fresh mint lemonade  stuffed paratha (not the best we've had), mini New York cheesecakes and finally some mocha chip ice-cream (just for me!)

One day vacation

Back at the end of August Dave went to Hawaii for work and was texting me pictures of palm trees, sushi, beaches and pool-side cocktails all week while I sweltered in humid New York. 

(He'd probably want me to point out here that he was also working very hard on serious volcano business). 

Due to my my new American schedule (far fewer days off than seems possible to survive on!) I was unable to go with him and so as some consolation I was desperate to get a final day on the beach before the end of Summer.

We decided to minimise travel time and head out to Long Beach for the day which is only an hour from Penn Station. 

Obviously as it was a hot and sunny weekend we were not the only New Yorkers who had this clever idea...

Thankfully there was plenty of room on the sand for all of us. Including some very energetic frisbee and volleyball matches.

We swam in the sea, jumped in the waves, snoozed under our umbrella and ate ice-crem on the boardwalk. 

It's no Hawaii but just being out of the city and in the sea was lovely. 

A perfect end to our first summer here.

Garden State pickings

On one of the hottest days of summer we drove out of the city to a pick-your-own farm in New Jersey to eat ripe peaches and enjoy some much needed fresh air.

After so long in Manhattan it was lovely to be in the countryside and the array of produce available for picking was brilliant. 

We had to be a little restrained as Dave was heading off to Washington for the week so we tried to pick only a couple of each thing and not go too crazy. But still we ended up with two boxes filled with blueberries, peaches, melons, squashes, courgettes, aubergine and lots more.

After an afternoon trekking round the farm in the absolutely baking sun we were rather tired and hot. So before heading back to the city we stretched out in the shade of the peach trees and gorged ourselves on as many perfectly ripe and delicious peaches as we could eat. 

And then topped it off with home made ice-cream from the farm shop!