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I opened my eyes when the subway crossed the Brooklyn Bridge. The sky had that blue morning glow tint with the sun rising behind one of the old warehouse buildings. I wondered how many New Yorkers have not seen this sight. I checked my phone and saw that it was only 5:15am. We’ve been on the subway only since 4:50am and yet, we were already halfway towards Sheepshead Bay in Brooklyn.

The Dr. had the weekend off and he really wanted to go fishing. The last time I met up with Sean and Jane in Staten Island, she mentioned that she wanted to go fishing for the first time. I told her about our last-minute trip on Friday night, and by 6:30am, the four of us were sitting together in the Brooklyn VI boat ready to fish for bluefish.

We spent the next eight and a half hours on the boat dropping our sinkers and lures and reeling in. In between boat stops to look for the perfect spot to fish–we were following the sea gulls–we would go inside the boat and nap. We bought several beers and a hamburger from the kitchen when it was time to eat lunch.

It was a beautiful day to fish. We had our sunblock on, but it wasn’t too hot to be outside the boat waiting for the fish to bite. Once in a while, someone would scream that they got something and the deckhands will go around the boat announcing that there was one aboard. There was a lot of pep talk and rah-rahs to encourage all of us to keep fishing. Even though it was Jane’s first time to fish, she caught four. The Dr. followed soon and contributed six. Sean had a few bites but none wanted to become dinner. I had one exciting moment, but I panicked that I probably helped the fish unhook itself. Before the day was over, we paid a dollar each for our fish to be cleaned. Everyone ahead of us just wanted their fish filetted. I was so horrified when I saw the deckhands dump the pail of fish heads and bones back in the ocean. These burly men have never heard of fumet! When our turn came, we asked only for our fish to be scaled and gutted out, head and bones intact.

I didn’t have beginners’ luck like Jane, but I had an awesome time hanging out on someone’s boat and thinking of our dinner prospects.

You don’t need a reservation to join the Brooklyn VI boat. Just take the Q subway to Sheepshead Bay, walk towards the water and go to Pier 6. The boat leaves every Saturday at 7am. In July, bluefish is in season, but you can also catch sea bass and porgies. It’s $45 to get on the boat and an extra $5 to rent a rod. You keep all the fish you catch. Each fish is $1 to be cleaned.

Related post/s:
Fishing in Sheepshead Bay photos on Flickr
Fumet recipe for all those fish heads and bones

I’ve wanted to visit the library on 42nd Street ever since the map room was renovated. I finally got a chance to stop by one Saturday. Past the security guard and to your right in Room 117 is the Lionel and Princess Firyal Map Division. The entire library is already quiet, but walking in the map room is a completely different experience. It doesn’t feel stuffy inside even though the room holds some 400,000 maps and at least 16,000 atlases, books, periodicals and CDs about carthography. The New York City collection alone consists of maps from the 16th century. Maps cataloged after 1970 are all accessible via the library’s online CATNYP.

From a Henry Hope Reed book, I got the architectural details of the map room. The doorway is made of blue gray Fermosa marble from Germany while the perimeter of the floor is made of dark cream Hauteville with an inner band of Red Champlain ‘Oriental Variety’ from Vermont. The heavily-trafficked areas of the floor are made up of red Welsh quarry tiles. I have to admit that I didn’t even notice the doorway and the floor until I started reading about the room’s details because as soon as you walk in, the paneling strikes you. Eight patterns repeat in French walnut: satyrs, cherubs, lion heads, dog heads, birds, sphinxes, cornucopia and acanthus. The lowered plastered ceiling hides two east-west beams which allows for the six semi-domes around the edges of the map room. There are PL letters in gold on the domes for, what else, Public Library. The chandeliers are bronze with ornaments of acanthus, bayleaf wreaths with ribbons, bearded lions and carved scrollworks. There are shelves that hold a lot of books, but the long walnut tables dominate. The trestle tables are on pedestals decorated with the arms of the city of New York. The bases end in dolphin heads and rest on blocks of Verde Antique marble. Every little bit of detail is impressive. The librarian allowed me to take photographs as long as I kept my flash off.

The New York Public Library is open everyday except Sunday from 11am to 6pm; Tuesdays and Wednesdays until 7:30pm.

Related post/s:
Map Room photos on Flickr

We woke up early on Saturday to catch the 9am Metro-North train from the Harlem stop up to Poughkeepsie. I bet it was a beautiful two-hour ride, but I was catching some Zs the whole ride up while the Dr. studied for his board exams next to me. In the Poughkeepsie station, we stepped out to board the Loop shuttle bus. The other six people with us all had tickets to give the bus driver–we didn’t know we had to buy a package from the station clerk. It didn’t matter, though, because two round-trip tickets cost us $52 which was the same price of two Farm Fresh Link weekend getaway packages.

Our first stop was the Plankenhorn Dairy Farm, part of the Hudson Valley Fresh Cooperative. I’ve seen their labels around the city: Think Global, Eat Local. We were welcomed by the owners in their yard. They told us about the history of their dairy farm, their prized cow, Lizzie, and how happy their cows are. When we finally met the cows, I was surprised at how big they were. I guess the cows I see on pasture are not necessarily dairy cows. I thought dairy cows just had milk in them, you know? I had no clue they all have to give birth first before they can produce milk. All of Plankenhorn’s cows are artificially inseminated by different bulls all over the country to make sure that they produce nice calves and good milk. They milk them twice a day, one in the morning and later in the afternoon, after a day of resting in the barn equipped with a giant fan and tire mattresses to keep the cows comfortable.

My favorite part was, of course, tasting the farm’s milk. The regular milk was thin and tasted so fresh, while the chocolate milk was thicker and tasted like melted chocolate ice cream. Both were good with the chocolate cookies the farmers passed around. Because they are part of a cooperative, they can’t sell their milk at the farmers’ market. But you can get Hudson Valley Fresh milk from Zabar’s in the upper west side.

Our next stop was the town of Millbrook for the farmers’ market. I didn’t want to carry fresh meats in my tote bag all day, so we left with only a jar of garlic pickles and an apple turnover. We walked to the main street and checked out one of the antique stores before we sat outside Slammin’ Salmon to eat a hearty lunch of their “garbage” Angus beef burger and haddock fish and chips. We walked around the Millbrook park and playground before we got on the shuttle again for our last stop: Barton Orchard.

The original plan was to stop at Secor Farm and pick our own strawberries. Apparently, the farm is running out of fresh strawberries because it’s been popular the last few weekends. We were dropped off Barton Orchard instead to pick cherries. I’ve never seen cherry trees before, so I was amused to see real trees. I thought cherries hang from tall bushes the way blackberries grow. So I climbed one of the trees to reach the ripe cherries on top. After we filled two buckets, we went to the store to pay for our harvest. Our eight-pound yield cost us about $23.

It was the perfect day to visit the farms upstate. We were so spent that we passed out on the train ride back home.

Take advantage of the Dutchess County Farm Fresh Weekend Getaway with Metro-North:
From Grand Central Terminal or the Harlem stop, take the Poughkeepsie train that will take you to the last stop by 10:57am. Buy the $25.75 Dutchess County package which includes the shuttle bus ticket or call 1-800-445-3131 to reserve a seat at least 48 hours ahead. Outside the Poughkeepsie train station, look for the bus labeled “Dutchess County Farm Fresh Link”. There are three stops and the driver will stay with you until he has to drop you off the train station to catch your train back to New York City.

Related post/s:
Dutchess County photos on Flickr
You don’t need a car to go to upstate New York

After a free 7-minute ferry ride from the Battery Park Marine Terminal, we were on Governor’s Island. Back in the 1800s, Governors Island was used by the Coast Guard and the U.S. Army to protect the New York harbor. It became more popular after Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev met there for a 1988 summit meeting. Today, it’s a New York City landmark where summer cultural and historical programs are held. Visitors can picnic and check out several historic buildings like Castle Williams and Fort Jay.

As soon as the ferry docked, we walked along the National Monument Boundary and joined a few locals who brought their bicycles with them. The view of downtown Manhattan is as nice here as it is from the Brooklyn Bridge. The manicured lawn around Fort Jay was perfect for our picnic blanket and Sunday paper.

How to get to Governors Island:
Take the 1 subway to South Ferry. The Battery Park Maritime Terminal is next to the Staten Island Ferry Terminal. The first ferry ride from Manhattan is at 10am. The last one to leave Governors Island back to the city is at 5pm.

I lived in Washington Heights for more than ten years and I spent my formative high school years uptown, but like most New Yorkers, I never really made it past my comfort zone even though that already meant way above 14th Street for me. “Hiking” down from 207th to 97th Street was a new experience for both Cameron and me. After a big lunch at home, we took the A train to the last stop in Manhattan and walked towards Dyckman Park where it looked more like New England than New York City.

It was an absolutely glorious day with the sun up and shining. The trees still had their leaves on and the light breeze was enough to cool us down. Through the park, we made it along the Hudson River where there was a walking path right next to the Amtrak rail. A short fence kept us away from it, but it was still exhilarating whenever a train would zoom by. For the next hour or so, we kept walking until we reached a dead end. We had no choice but to cut through thorny bushes and walk on the rocks right next to the river. We probably did something illegal, but the old mattresses we saw tucked under the rocks led us to think other people have gone that way, too.

Twenty-eight blocks later and still no dead bodies to be found, we saw our reward: the 75-year old George Washington Bridge. At the bottom of the bridge, a more legitimate-looking pathway emerged from Fort Tryon Park. We walked towards the picnic area where we saw our second reward: the little red lighthouse, the only one in Manhattan.

It was pretty cool to see it even though I haven’t read the Hildegard H. Swift book because I’ve had a fascination with lighthouses ever since the Dr. and I drove all over the coast of Maine to visit each one marked on our map. The little red lighthouse under the great gray bridge was actually used by mariners passing through the Hudson until it was deactivated in 1947. They were going to dismantle and auction it off, but a lot of people who loved the book convinced the powers that be to keep it as a reminder of an area once called Jeffrey’s Hook. In the book, the little red lighthouse is happy and content until a bridge is built over it. But in the end, the lighthouse learns that it still has an important job to do and that there is still a place in the world for an old lighthouse.

We continued walking until the sun started to set, past the huge sanitation building and the Fairway on 135th Street. Even New Jersey looked pretty harmless from our side of the river. It got dark right away and we made it to 97th Street just in time for red wine, sausages and cheeses at the Vintage Wine Bar on 93rd Street.

Related post/s:
Sitting at the Vintage Wine Bar after our first urban hike