Weekend Wanderings

My friend Laura came to visit from Boston this past weekend. We were the two singles in a weeklong cooking class last summer in Tuscany. Our host in Italy, Chef Faye Hess, is my neighbor in Long Island City and Laura works with one of Faye's lifelong friends, near Boston.

Our home base in Tuscany!

Faye made the introduction last June via e-mail and Laura and I met up in Florence.  We just clicked--and the rest was a breeze--the train ride down south, getting the rental car, navigating what the rental agent warned would be "very curly roads" and finding the farmhouse. Strangers thrown together as roommates. Fast friends.

Laura and Faye, below, in Tuscany.

Laura had lived in NYC for 5 years, so there was no pressure to be tourists. We decided to stay local on this gray, chilly April weekend and just let things unfold.

We wandered over to Greenpoint and North Williamsburg, Brooklyn for flea marketing and window shopping, had a great lunch at Teddy's on Berry Street, and took a slow walk back home.

This license plate got us in the mood to spend a few hours in Brooklyn!

Greenpoint's main drag, Manhattan Avenue, with the NYC's Citicorp Bldg on the horizon. Manhattan and Manhattan Ave are 15 minutes and worlds apart.

I love low-key signs for unheralded businesses. The freekin' salt of the earth.

Mmmm, Teddy's makes a gooood Bloody Mary!

The Rite Aid Pharmacy is in a former roller rink--the disco ball is still hanging from the ornately carved plaster ceiling!

I just meant to "show" Laura the Peter Pan Bakery...where the waitresses wear turquoise and pink uniforms, and pull red and white striped string from overhead to wrap up the plain pastry boxes, lightning fast. The tiny U-shaped counter is mobbed all day and the doughnuts (donuts!) and bagels just keep coming out of the kitchen...

....but once we were inside, we somehow made room after lunch for a 'crulla and a chocolate old fashioned.

The 'cawfee rolls' are as big as a bundt cake! My friend Joan and I used to pop into Peter Pan now and then after working out at Curves  ;-)   I justified that detour because I'd done a 2 mile roundtrip walk.  But I digress.

The rest of the weekend was great. Faye came by with wine and her son Ferd. We had some nibbles and reminisced about Italy. No room for dinner---ooof!!

Had brekkie, read the paper, did a neighborhood stroll this morning around the Pepsi sign, took in the skyline and packed Laura off at noon.

I had a rather enjoyable weekend, sharing these quirky towns.