“The streets are paved with diamonds and there’s just so much to see!”

Welcome to Brooklyn! We arrived via taxi from LaGuardia around 6 pm. Mavi and Jeff gave us a quick tour of their abode before the hit the streets looking for food. They had Thai on their minds. (That’s one of my patented “Rachel holds the camera at arm’s length” photos)

Below is the menu for our resteraunt – I forgot the name. It’s in Williamsburg, hipster central so I’m told. Sure enough, we entered through an unlabeled barred garage shop-like door revealing a hidden warehouse converted fancy resteraunt with a DJ table by kitchen.

Ben ordered squid (on the left) and I had delicious peanut chicken curry. Sorry for the low lighting pictures, but I try not to make a show about taking photographs in resteraunts.

After dinner we walked to the Williamsburg bridge and admired the city lights. We crossed over into Manhatten and took the subway back. We finished off the night at the Barcade (bar + arcade). Ben set a few high scores before we called it a night.

Saturday morning. Here’s a nice shot of our bohemian friends’ living room. Buenos the cat was very social while Trixie mostly stayed out of our way (that must be a tiger tabby trait!).

Breakfast was at Tiny Cup where I had my requisite toasted bagel with cream cheese and a hot chocolate.

After a long subway ride we arrived in Queens. We walked all over the park and cooled off in the fountains, despite a cop warning us that it was “the dirtiest water in the city” since they reuse the same tanks filled in the 60s. Whatever. It was a hot day.

The US Open was happening at the stadiums near the park so there was a lot of security and tennis fans wandering about. Once we were thoroughly hot and tired Mavi led us to the “real” chinatown for supper. We ate “hot pot” at the place with the red awning. Hot pot is where they bring a pot of flavored broth and spicey oils to your table stove so you can cook your own food. For just $25 including tax/tip you can eat and drink all you want. You mix your own sauces (note that that had a bowl of M.S.G. you could add to your mix) they bring you whatever frozen meats or fresh veggies you want. You can also order dim sum items like dumplings. The staff got very excited when Mavi started talking to them in Chinese. They were eager to please and helped us use the correct tools and mix good sauces.

With full bellies we rode the subway home to ready ourselves for an evening of fun. First off, The 39 Steps at the Cort Theater. The show was a real hoot, we all loved it. (Thank you Mom and Dad!)

We walked through Times Square to gawk at the lights then ducked underground to get to Marks Place. This time we went cheap and grabbed sandwiches from Bamn, an updated automat. Across the street I finally finally got to try Pinkberry! I’ve been curious to try it for over a year but alas, they are only in NY and LA. It was delicious and I’m already trying to recreate fro-yo at home. I hear their is a place in Denver called Kuulture that makes a similar fro-yo.

Next came my most anticipated activity – Karaoke! Sing Sing Karaoke is Asian style karaoke. Instead of singing in front of a large group you rent a private room with your friends. This has two benefits: 1) Everyone is encouraged to sing without the public embarassement and 2) you get to sing more songs in your own room.

I have some videos of the night that I might not get around to posting (do you really want to hear our drunken/full sugar cola insprired 2:30 AM ravings?). We sang our wallets dry, slumped onto the train, falling into bed well after 3 AM.

So Sunday we decided to take it slower. We slept in mightily and cooked breakfast at home. Mavi took me shopping on 5th avenue and the guys went to central park and Toys R Us.

Late afternoon we met up and took another long train ride out to Coney Island. I think our true destination was Nathan’s Hot Dogs, but what the heck, we looked at the park too.

I gotta say that most everything about Coney Island, aside from the hot dogs, was disgusting. The beach was filthy. The whole area stank even more than usual. The rides were ancient and overpriced. Nevertheless we had a good time laughing at it all. Brian rode a couple spooky-type rides and Ben took a lot of gorgeous pictures. We took one last trip into Manhatten for another Pinkberry and headed home.

Monday our friends needed to return to work. We just had time to have breakfast in Bedford, Brooklyn, walk around a bit, and go back to gather our luggage. Travelling home was very smooth. I’m so glad we took the time and money to make this trip happen. Jeff and Mavi were FANTASTIC hosts!