Our first day was a major hit-- I found a tour of Brooklyn, called "A Slice of Brooklyn", run by a guy named "Tony". Imagine all of your stereotypes about NY/Brooklyn guys- 
and he was it! By the end of the day, everyone was saying, "fuhgedaboutit"...and "howyadoin". After a visit to the Brooklyn Bridge, we stopped for a slice of thin-crust Neapolitan pizza...then on to Coney Island - and a stop at another famous pizzeria -with Sicilian (Parmesan-over sauce-over mozzarella slices) and spumoni. While driving through the Brooklyn neighborhoods, Tony would cue his DVD player to show clips from films shot in Brooklyn. So, as you drive under the D line in Bensonhurst, you're watching "The French Connection" chase scene. On 86th Street in Bay Ridge, he shows John Travolta strutting his stuff in the opening scene of "Saturday Night Fever". (Wouldn't you know, the next day, this tour was being highlighted on The Today Show- this guy is gonna be swamped...)
and he was it! By the end of the day, everyone was saying, "fuhgedaboutit"...and "howyadoin". After a visit to the Brooklyn Bridge, we stopped for a slice of thin-crust Neapolitan pizza...then on to Coney Island - and a stop at another famous pizzeria -with Sicilian (Parmesan-over sauce-over mozzarella slices) and spumoni. While driving through the Brooklyn neighborhoods, Tony would cue his DVD player to show clips from films shot in Brooklyn. So, as you drive under the D line in Bensonhurst, you're watching "The French Connection" chase scene. On 86th Street in Bay Ridge, he shows John Travolta strutting his stuff in the opening scene of "Saturday Night Fever". (Wouldn't you know, the next day, this tour was being highlighted on The Today Show- this guy is gonna be swamped...) Check out his web site, Slice of Brooklyn Pizza: http://www.asliceofbrooklyn.com/
Brenda, Carolyn and I did a "Shopping Tour"---4 1/2 hours in the Garment District - going into the backroom showrooms where the store buyers go to buy their clothes, accessories, etc. They're not open to the public- but with this tour you get in and can shop the samples. Brenda got a $450 coat for $65!. (Now, only Brenda would bargain in the showrooms- she got them down from $75 to $65..."Why pay wholesale?!"). We walked out feet off- that day and every other day.
Brenda, Carolyn and I did a "Shopping Tour"---4 1/2 hours in the Garment District - going into the backroom showrooms where the store buyers go to buy their clothes, accessories, etc. They're not open to the public- but with this tour you get in and can shop the samples. Brenda got a $450 coat for $65!. (Now, only Brenda would bargain in the showrooms- she got them down from $75 to $65..."Why pay wholesale?!"). We walked out feet off- that day and every other day.
John and I played tour guides at the Chelsea Market. This old factory (built in 1898) was owned by Nabisco and was the place where the Oreo cookie was invented. When Nabisco 
moved out, it was bought by a visionary who saw it as a place for both retail and wholesale operation. He brought in breadmakers, meat packers, produce vendors, flower vendors – offering them the ability to operate their wholesale operations on the exterior of the building- pulling their trucks in for shipments, and operating a retail operation on the inside. He kept the interior intact – so it has the feeling of an old factory. He encouraged the shops to have glassed in frontage to allow the shoppers to see their operations – baking bread, cutting meat… He had his son-in-law, an artist, create comfortable places for people to sit –resulting in huge Fred Flintstone like benches – that are now filled with people eating and drinking. On the upper floors are the TV studios for NY’s local channel, The Food Network and The Oxygen Network. (Web site for Chelsea Market: http://www.chelseamarket.com/pages/history.html)
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moved out, it was bought by a visionary who saw it as a place for both retail and wholesale operation. He brought in breadmakers, meat packers, produce vendors, flower vendors – offering them the ability to operate their wholesale operations on the exterior of the building- pulling their trucks in for shipments, and operating a retail operation on the inside. He kept the interior intact – so it has the feeling of an old factory. He encouraged the shops to have glassed in frontage to allow the shoppers to see their operations – baking bread, cutting meat… He had his son-in-law, an artist, create comfortable places for people to sit –resulting in huge Fred Flintstone like benches – that are now filled with people eating and drinking. On the upper floors are the TV studios for NY’s local channel, The Food Network and The Oxygen Network. (Web site for Chelsea Market: http://www.chelseamarket.com/pages/history.html)
Then we took them on our own version of a Greenwich Village/SOHO walking/eating tour. Since the Cajuns have shared their tremendous cuisine (NOTHING like eating in the home of a great Cajun cook - and Sharon and Brenda are two of the absolute best!), we love introducing the Cajuns to strange ethnic eateries. We dragged them to tiny storefront restaurants/eateries and ordered tastings of Indian aloo kathi rolls, Israeli pressed sandwiches, Jamaican beef patties, fresh mozzarella and Italian sausage, Greek yogurt, and homemade Halva with pistachios.
Now, after all that, they did drag us to Little Italy for dinner. It's funny, "Brenda's New York" is so different from ours. She's the Times Square, Rockefeller Center, Broadway NYC girl. We're all Greenwich Village/SOHO/Lower East Side/Chelsea and tiny dives and ethnic foods. Although, I think Brenda's John was appreciating our cuisine a bit more after our Little Italy experience. After ordering a bottle of Chianti for $38, we ordered our $25+ dollar entrees...with everything ala carte. Our $100 per couple dinner great fun, but we'll still take our street food and ethnic dumps. We did see Gene Simmons (from Kiss) wandering the streets of Little Italy (although, no one in our group had a clue who he was..)
We had to introduce Stephanie to the Cajuns. She found a few treasures for us....she met us one night at a bar called the "Ear".....one of the oldest bars in NYC (the original sign was "Bar" but part of the "B" lighting was out--hence, the "E-ar" name). And- a Chinatown treasure- with soup dumplings and real feel of China....
The Cajuns left Sunday morning....and it still feels like they just left yesterday. We did absolutely nothing all day Sunday after their departure (we had a little bloody mary/mimosa brunch before they left). I spent the day reading my New York Times.
On Monday, we headed to Brooklyn on our continuing genealogical research project. We went on a field trip to Brooklyn to find the grave of John' great-great grandmother's brother (he died returning home from England where he was on a Mormon mission. He made it back to NYC and died of TB- so his brother planted him in a cemetery in Brooklyn (" 5 1/2 feet in the ground, in good clean soil"). (By the way, this was in about 1858...) Well, we headed out by subway/train to almost the end of the line in Brooklyn. As we passed each of the stops, the neighborhoods seemed to be getting a bit tougher....and we started to notice police officers walking through the stations. I asked John if he had done any checking on the neighborhood that this cemetery was located in. Well, we got off the train (with one officer on the platform and another at the ticket booth). Fortunately, the cemetery was about a block down from the station. We found the office and found a nice man who offered to take us to the general location of the grave (the oldest section of the cemetery). Lucky for us- since the 
cemetery covers 200 acres of land. We found the general area, but the stones were almost all gone. Our driver was an ex-cop and when we asked about any ethnic restaurants in the neighborhood, he laughed and asked, "Do you have a gun?". We got the message... On the walk back to the station, a group of teens came racing down the stairs screaming something about shooting someone. Our hearts were racing....but we made it safe to the station and back on the train. (Which, by the way, was a screeching, pounding, graffiti covered disaster). Oh, what a joy it is to be an American these days-- so much to be proud about??!! Crumbling infrastructure...in debt up to our ears to the Chinese....a failing war. Can it get any better?
cemetery covers 200 acres of land. We found the general area, but the stones were almost all gone. Our driver was an ex-cop and when we asked about any ethnic restaurants in the neighborhood, he laughed and asked, "Do you have a gun?". We got the message... On the walk back to the station, a group of teens came racing down the stairs screaming something about shooting someone. Our hearts were racing....but we made it safe to the station and back on the train. (Which, by the way, was a screeching, pounding, graffiti covered disaster). Oh, what a joy it is to be an American these days-- so much to be proud about??!! Crumbling infrastructure...in debt up to our ears to the Chinese....a failing war. Can it get any better? 
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