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Coming off the New Jersey Turnpike and crossing the distinctive, new Goethals Bridge,
we know we are close to CJ’s and our journey is nearly over.
On October 1, 2021, we brought art works, books, and other items that CJ had
stored in our house since 2006 to her new apartment on Beverley Road in Brooklyn.
Amazingly, we found a parking space right in front of the building!
After the boxes were unloaded and brought up to CJ’s apartment, the next important business was to properly greet and admire Oliver, CJ’s big, orange cat. We would have enthusiastically greeted CJ’s other cat, Zoey, too, but Zoey is shy so we were treated only to occasional glimpses as she peered at us from around corners. |
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CJ has a great view from her 11th floor apartment. She is actually south-southwest of Manhattan. She can see the towers of Lower Manhattan above Green-Wood Cemetery, the tall buildings of downtown Brooklyn, and some of Prospect Park. In the photos below, Lower Manhattan is the cluster of buildings on the left, with the World Trade Center standing up 1,368 feet and 1,776 feet to the top of its spire. The buildings on the right are downtown Brooklyn with a tower under construction, 9 DeKalb Avenue, with a height of 1,066 feet standing high above the others.
Oliver can look down to watch the pigeons.
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Lower Manhattan and downtown Brooklyn at night |
Lower Manhattan and downtown Brooklyn in the pre-dawn twilight |
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Lower Manhattan and downtown Brooklyn during the day |
Wildlife in Brooklyn |
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We spent some of Saturday trying to fix the installation of CJ’s Murphy Bed. She had had a professional install it and he had made a serious mistake. Admittedly, the instructions were sketchy, but they said in bold print that the base of the bed should be installed as far from the wall as possible. He had not done that and had instead installed the base several inches too close to the wall. The result was that when a mattress was on the bed, it could not fold up. Wth simple tools and much struggling, we were able to partially disassemble the bed but we ran into a roadblock. Then we were able re-assemble the bed, again with struggling. In the end, we had not fixed the problem, but we tried.
On Saturday, we also visited a couple flea markets looking for possible furnishings for the apartment, not successfully.
We did successfully assemble shelving for the kitchen and a floor-to-ceiling cat tower for Oliver and Zoey.
On Sunday we took the subway to Manhattan and then a short ferry ride to Governors Island. The small - 172 acre - island was the site of three forts build to defend New York City against British ships during the War of 1812. The star-shaped Fort Jay and Castle Williams still exist as National Monuments, although modified. The island is also home to other remains of its military past, such as officer’s homes and churches. Now the facilities are used for the Harbor School, a public high school intended to train students for work on the water, for art exhibits, and other activities.
After leaving Governors Island, we stopped at a flea market under a ramp to the Manhattan Bridge to look for possible furnishings for the apartment. Again without success, but we did get tropical fruit smoothies.
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Riding the F Train |
Walls of Fort Jay |
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CJ and Gail with a Civil-war-era, 10-inch Rodman gun in Fort Jay |
At Shantell Martin’s Church art installation |
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Part of the May Wall, inside Shantell Martin’s Church |
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Click on the photo of the May Wall to see a video giving a 360º
scan of the interior of the Church. Click on your back arrow when
the video finishes.
A few of the sayings on the May Wall are:
May you know self
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Al and CJ |
The Manhattan Bridge from below |
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After Sunday’s adventures we headed back to Maryland, getting home around 9 PM.
Responsible: Albert Holm
Created: 9 October 2021