I had this trip planned since December and nice weather wasn't going to stop me from going away. 

I left around 7am Tuesday morning, driving out to the closet NJ train station, which is around an hour and 40 minutes, so not too bad of a drive at all. The train left a bit after 9 am and got to the city in around 2 1/2 hours, down to Penn Station with only one transfer. It was bitter cold that morning and I packed as light as I could manage, so I got quite cold on the train platform but the train itself was plenty warm. I brought my sweater to knit and also brought my work bluetooth ear protection, so used that on the train to listen to a book while I knitted. I managed with a duffel bag and a large backpack, which was more than I wanted to bring, but four days of clothes meant I needed more room so I had to haul a duffel bag. It was a small one at least and it was easy to tuck at my feet or hold close to me on stairs or in tight spaces, so it worked. 

Originally I was supposed to meet my sister at her place in Brooklyn, but for mysterious reasons, she was 10 minutes from Penn Station when I got there and I saw her text before I got on the subway, so we got to hang out more! 

We dropped my stuff at her apartment and went to the corner grocery store where we got snacks and lunch. Then we hung out for a bit and took a nap.  Then we headed back to Manhatten and grabbed dinner at a place called the Grey Dog. Food was decent, they had gluten free bread for all their sandwiches. Fries were mid. We stopped by Z's workplace and chatted with her coworkers while killing time and drinking hot chocolate and then headed for the venue. 

We were seeing Big Richard at the Bitter End and the band was fantastic as always. The venue and crowd were odd. The venue was a long narrow room with the stage at the center facing small tables and standing room to either side with a few tables. All of the tables directly facing the stage were reserved and it must have been for friends and family because there wasn't any VIP options when I bought the tickets. But also, not everyone showed up so some of those tables were empty. It was a tiny crowd for the space, which wasn't very big. The music as per usual was too loud but my sister introduced me to Mack's Earplugs and hoo boy, they are amazing! I hate traditional ear plugs and haven't tried the expensive loops or anything. Only downside is my ears got sweaty on the inside by the end of the concert but so worth it.

The music and band were amazing as always though and what a freaking delight. They're incredible at playing live and have really good chemistry and banter. They had another gig in CT the next night and my sister and I did actual research to see if it would make sense for us to go, but it wouldn't unfortunately. 

Then we headed back to Z's. Got home at 11:30ish and had to do the come down thing, so it was after midnight that I finally fell asleep. 

We slept in the next morning. Well. Z slept in until around 10. I slept in until 7, got up, showered, ate breakfast, knitted and then took a nap for an hour until she got up. Worked great honestly. Ate food before we left.

The we went to the Brooklyn Central Library, where we got a personalized tour from a friend of Z's who works there including some exciting maintenance areas which showed how many different addons there were to the building over time, even if the outside looks like one solid building. And we got to see all the creepy stacks in the basement. Love that. She gave me a brooklyn library card which was very nice. 

We got ice cream at Ample Hills Creamery, which was delicious and then went to the Brooklyn Art Museum. We went up to the small exhibit Sakimatwemtwe: A Century of Reflection on the Arts of Africa which was a collection of items that had previously been on exhibit in the 1920s by ye olde colonizers and gave actual context on what the artifacts were and their significance in specific Congolese cultures since most of the artifacts came from Belgian controlled Congo at the time. It was right next to the Egyptian wing, so we wandered through there admiring the craftsmanship of the items. Then we sat down on the bench in the middle of the exhibit and had a lovely conversation about making art and craft and convenience culture and disposablility and all sorts of cool things since the place was pretty much empty. It was nearly closing time, so we left and walked back, admiring some cool architecture we saw. We got takeout from a local mexican grocery for dinner and then did our favorite thing, which is doing music exchange by playing youtube videos on the tv of cool music we've heard recently. 

Thursday morning, I had a lay around for a bit, the packed, said goodbye to my sister and headed to the Tenement Museum to meet up with Jade. Hilariously, she accidentally took an express train and ended up in Brooklyn, so I found a little park with seating and hung out there until she managed to get back. Thankfully, our tour was at 10:45, so we had enough time for her to make it back. The museum had storage, so I was able to store my backpack and duffel bag there which was fantastic. We first did the Moores tour, about Irish immigrants and had such a good time that we asked the tour guide if she had a favorite tour and she recommended the Levines, which was about Jewish immigrant women. All the tours center around people who actually lived in the house and they had both recreated living spaces and the ruined spaces as it was in the 1980s when the founders opened the place up. The building sat mostly empty from the 1930s to the 1980s. We went and got lunch in the middle of that from a deli, which had delicious chicken and rice for me and empanadas for Jade. 

After the tours, we walked up to Bub's Bakery, in a different neighborhood for breakfast and snacks for me for travel day friday. The food was amazing! I got two bagels, a biscuit, a cinnamon roll and a kouign amann which is a fancy folded donut with jam and lemon pastry cream. It was all very expensive but really really good. I wish they had recipes because these were so good. The kouign amann was the first donut like thing I've had since I had to go gluten free and it was phenomenal. The bagels were extremely bagel. The cinnamon roll is decent, but I think I've got better recipes. I ate the kouign amann on the bench outside, Jade got a banana pudding cup and everything else was for later. 

We took the bus back to her place and then went wandering around jersey city, got ice cream, went to the park, enjoyed the wonderful warm weather and checked out her local library. And sat and chatted and admired the NYC skyline. We got dinner at a crepe place that did savory crepes which were fucking incredible and so so so tasty. 



Friday morning, Jade went to work and I took the bus down to the Hoboken Terminal and caught my train from there, which worked extremely well since it is a train hub for the trains leaving the city. The conductor was so nice and moved the seats for the people traveling to the end of the line so we got more knee room. I was back to my truck by 10:30 and home by 12:30 where I took a two hour nap. 

The whole trip was a freaking delight, I'm so glad I went before the season got busy. The weather was great and I got to spent time with Jade and Z and it was so lovely.