My dear friend and soul sister Michelle has been inviting me on Spanish learning adventures for at least 10 years. I have never been able to go. She has however, accompanied our family on two big travel adventures – Kenya and India. I love travelling with her.
This time was no different- she was travelling to Peru and Mexico for three weeks and graciously invited me to tag along. When she asked me, I was in the throes of the planning of our Japanese adventure and couldn’t fathom taking such a big trip so close to our return home.
Just over two weeks ago, she waited till I was settled back home and then reminded me that there was still a bed for me in their Airbnb and sent me some info on some very inexpensive deals on flights to Mexico. I found a flight with a 22 hour stopover in Newark, prefect for a short visit with my wonderful cousins in Brooklyn. How could I turn down this opportunity: two small side trips visiting my cousins in Brooklyn, and a week spending time with one my absolute favourite families – The Burkes – all for $394 CDN – taxes in! In the mornings I will be studying Spanish in a semi-private lesson with Howard, and playing the rest of the time 🙂 Maybe we will even get some scuba diving in.
Aubrey got up super early and drove me to the airport before his long crazy day at work. He is amazing – the only thing that could make this trip even better was if he could have dropped everything to come with me.
Luckily for me, the trip went smoothly- we even arrived a bit early to Newark. I took an Uber to Harris’s, dropped off my bag and then we headed into midtown Manhattan to meet our cousin Vince. He happened to be in town because he was interviewed on The Daily Show the night before, promoting his new book “Power Metal – The Race for the Resources that Will Shape the Future”.
Here is the video of his interview – he was so great!
Here is his book if you are interested in reading it
We went to an amazing restaurant called Berimbau Brazilian Kitchen. We shared a variety of interesting dishes that I had never tried before. They had some great veggie options.
We had a great lunch and got to hear all about his experience on The Daily Show. I am blessed with some amazing cousins, and I thoroughly enjoyed spending time with both of them. Great food and even better company.
After lunch we headed to the Morgan Library Museum, a fascinating place. It was originally the site of the private library of the famous financier J.P. Morgan. They have built a beautiful addition onto his residence, housing several other collections. He funded many archaeological projects and amassed a vast collection of artifacts: Renaissance paintings, illuminated manuscripts, original printings of thousands of books, relics from Mesopotamia, ancient Egypt, devotional art, the list is endless. They have over 350,000 items in their collection. So many things to look at, so much information to digest. There were many small rooms to explore and they were all packed with incredible things. In addition to the main library building, we saw an exhibit about Franz Kafka, and a collection of several original Medieval “Book of Marvels” including one written by Marco Polo! After an hour and a half my brain was quite overloaded. It left me wanting more and I would love to return someday.
After the museum, Harris and I said goodbye to Vince and hopped on the B train back to Brooklyn. I will leave the rest of the day for the next blogpost 🙂