Day 3, part 3. Brooklyn bound.

After lunch, we headed to Brooklyn. The view coming from Brooklyn to Manhattan is supposed to be amazing. So the idea was to take a cab or subway to Brooklyn, then walk over the bridge. We decided the subway to Brooklyn would be best. I'm so glad we decided that. You will see why in a bit.

When we got on the subway, a strolling accordion player entered the subway with us. He played the theme from Star Wars and the kids got a kick out of that. After a few stops, a group of men boarded the subway and started to sing old Motown hits. They were great. They came around and passed a can to put in tips. There was no strong arming or pressure to tip, but we were happy to do it. They were entertaining.

That is one of the things that amazed me about the people of New York City. They were always hustling to make a buck. During the first few days of the trip, it was over 90 degrees. People had coolers set up on the street to sell water. And on the last day when it rained, the water salesmen were replaced by umbrella salesmen. People traveled the subway, or stood around Central Park singing or playing an instrument. All this to make a living. They definitely are a group of people who do what it takes to make a living.

Anyway, we got to our stop in Brooklyn and exited. Originally, I had planned to walk around Brooklyn, buy the kids an ice cream and a well known ice cream shop, take lots of pictures of the bridge, etc. But it was over 90 degrees, and we were all getting tired. Plus, it's a long walk over the bridge. So I scrapped the plans and we just headed straight for the bridge.

So to refresh your memory, this is what we walked over.

Celebrating 130 years. It doesn't look a day over 129.

I was a bit nervous about walking over the bridge, because I didn't understand how they would separate cars from pedestrians. But once we stepped onto the bridge, I could see that the cars were on their own section. That gave me piece of mind, because Noah still needs to be watched carefully on the street. You see that long line of cars in the picture below? Boy, am I glad we did not take a cab, because we would have been sitting in that horrible traffic for quite some time. I did have to laugh, because at one point, one of those cars was blasting Jay Z's Empire State of Mind. It was perfect to hear as we crossed the bridge.

Cars and pedestrians traveled on separate parts of the bridge.

As we walked over the bridge, I quickly realized that I should have been more concerned with bikes than cars. In the picture above, you can see a white line along the ground. That is all the separates pedestrians from bike riders that come flying by. It was a little nerve wracking to make sure that Nik and Noah stayed on the correct side of that line. 

Brooklyn.

Along our walk, there were people selling cold drinks from their water coolers. It was such a hot day, I'm sure they made a nice profit.

Some of the views from the Brooklyn Bridge.

The view of Manhattan from the bridge was amazing. Maybe if there weren't so many crazy bike riders flying by, we would have been able to get more pictures. But it was pretty stressful, so we just kept moving. After we crossed the bridge back into Manhattan, we stopped at a quiet spot near City Hall and had a drink of ice cold water. There were crazy squirrels all over. They had no fear of people and would come right up to try and steal food.

After our long walk, we decided to catch the subway and head back to the hotel. We were all pretty wiped out by then. 

Up next, FAO Schwartz.