The last days

The past few days have been relatively laid-back. I'm afraid we haven't been seeing as much of New York as we'd hoped, but we're fairly travel weary at this point and have been feeling the need to relax. Thankfully, Karen and Adrien have been wonderful hosts and their Brooklyn apartment is a great place to refresh and recharge.

On Monday Nathan stayed home to rest up a bit and work on paperwork for his upcoming grad school program. (Believe me, there's a lot of it.) Adrien, Karen, and I headed out to trek across the Brooklyn Bridge and into Soho.







It was a much shorter walk than I'd anticipated, but it was a warm, beautiful day and I spent way too much time admiring the bridge and the view from it.




After spending several hours walking around and exploring the city in the late summer heat, we all returned home, feeling rather exhausted. We went out for some delicious pizza (after a bit of a rest) at a little corner vendor called "Luigi's Pizza," where we were served by Luigi himself. When we retired home, we watched some Law & Order (Karen's addiction to it is contagious) and enjoyed some warm cookies with milk. (Yes, they are ridiculously wonderful hosts.)

Today we began our day by seeing a bit more of the Pratt campus, which is covered in various art pieces. (It was the inspiration for the movie Art School Confidential.)







Then we went into Manhattan, where we indulged a bit by getting some desperately-needed massages in the morning, then headed over to the Chelsea Market for lunch. Karen and I walked almost the entire width of Manhattan by doing so -- which isn't a giant feat or anything, since it's tiny. We took the subway to the upper west side, where Karen went to orientation at her university. Nathan and I went to St John the Divine Cathedral, which is the largest cathedral in the world. Unfortunately we only saw about a quarter of it, since a great deal of it was heavily damaged by a fire in 2001, and they are still doing repairs on it.


Nathan and I were going to visit some museums on the south side of Central Park, but the day got away from us, so we spent some time lounging around in Central Park.

Tomorrow we'll have a few hours in the morning and early afternoon before we kiss our kitties and friends goodbye, pack our bags, and head off for JFK again. Next stop: England.