Brooklyn (Project Jenny, Project Jan)--and other adventures

"It's always so sunny in Brooklyn
Without a cloud in the sky."

Our friends the Spackmans have shown us around their corner of Brooklyn. The first night we were here we hoofed around looking for a good place to eat--because half the reason you go on a vacation to a place is to experience the dining--and we ended up at a small French restaurant called "Moutarde". True to its name, the servers bring out slivered vegetables to dip into several different kinds and colors of mustards that you never knew existed but just then wonder if they would taste just as good on the bread as they do on the veggies, and oh, what about the leg of lamb, and just as you suspected all along, the mustard enhanced just about everything on the table except the water. Though, to be fair, the rosemary-red wine sauce could stand on it's own when it came to the lamb.

We've been having a great time hanging out with the Spackmans. Church was interesting from a purely people-watching standpoint—the ward is very artsy and fashion-forward, as I suspect most younger New Yorkers are. I should have brought my artsy clothes. Next we walked all 5, 989 feet of the Brooklyn Bridge and played tourist snapping photos of the bridge, the skyline and ourselves. A man on a bike passed by wearing an Idaho State University shirt, and Jason regrets not shouting “Go Bangles!” at him.

You can’t see much at Ground Zero now. It’s been blocked off by tall fences all the way around. You can see tall cranes poking out the top, but that’s about it. It was a little disappointing because, though you probably don't need to see the gaping scar, the images of 9/11 remain elusive and have less impact when all you have is the memory of the pictures from television. Even so, you still feel a little heartsore just being there.

The last place we ended up on Sunday was a cupcake party in the West Village. I love that there is a cupcake "scene" in New York, that there are competing companies that have long lines of patrons waiting to buy their pastries, that there are parties to compare them. Decidedly, Christy Spackman's homemade lemon cupcakes topped with lemon curd and whipped cream were the best, and that's not just lip service to our hostess. The West Village was...interesting...a neighborhood where you can have your tatoo, piercing, fettish and french fry needs met all on the same street. I have to mention that the female mannequins weren't constructed to scale, but they probably brought in more customers that way!