11/14/04 Showing Off The New Flat to the Families/Exploring Park Slope:

The next step of the rental process, at least in Rich and my families, is to give the first grand tour to the parents. Peter and David surely would have been here for this as well, had they not been in England.

The day began with an inspection from across the street. It was a beautiful looking day. But COLD.

Our apartment takes up all the windows you see on the top two stories. We are lords of the manor, I suppose. But once you try the walk-up, it's more like we're residents of the upper part of a tree house. This is my tree house in Brooklyn.

We met up with Mommy at Guerrilla Cafe. She had arrived early, so we advised her to hang out there for a little. I think she really god a sense of the amazing neighborhood vibe that I've been going on about for the past few days.

Then when Cliff showed up with the keys, the tour began.

Everyone is standing in what we plan to be the dining room area, next to the kitchen bar. The Microwave sits in a box on the floor, yet to be installed.

We look out on the balcony, which flows into the fire escape, and on the lower level, we see a beautiful high-end grill on the 3rd floor. Barbecuing, to my knowledge, is illegal on Balconies in New York City. Or maybe just Manhattan? We'll see.

Richard inspects the cabinetry.

The corner bedroom is literally flooded with light coming in from the South and East.

The measuring of the windows for dressing begins!

Lacking furniture, room sizes are hard to gauge. This can help.

We check out the roof for a little bit. After our grand tour, we decided to check out the neighborhood by walked up Park Place to Grand Army Plaza.

We druel over the side streets that become increasingly gorgeous as we approach Prospect Park at the top of the hill (or slope). The original blue-stone sidewalks, the incredible brownstone stairways, the intricate doors and amazing bay windows all catch our continued attention.

A building on Grand Army Plaza and Union Street is reminiscent of the Flatiron as it follows the angled street lines.

Above is the northern-most entrance to Prospect Park and on the left in the background is the Brooklyn Library.

The street to the right of the building gently curves around a huge oval plaza called "Grand Army Plaza."

There are jaw-dropping examples of Richardsonian Romanesque architecture mixed in with Queen Anne, Victorian, a little tudor, and old dutch.

We landed at a restaurant that opened yesterday, one block from the new apartment, called Peccoroncino. It's an Italian place, run by italians authentic enough to speak in italian with Richard's father.

Looking up above the entrance.

It was a great afternoon had by all, filled with lots of excitement for the times to come, the exploration of a beautiful new (to us) corner of this ever-explorably-large city.

In the evening, Rich, Natalie and I saw the Incredibles at a multiplex near Downtown Brooklyn, also not too far from the new apartment. We enjoyed it thoroughly, but were ticked off when the house lights came on before the credits had finished, which we believe is in violation of union or contractual obligations with the distributor. I took a photo to prove it, but forgot to send it to whoever might care. Who does? Not sure. We did. Somewhat. It's fun to occasionally be thoroughly outraged over some trifle or another.