We arrived without incident at New York LaGuardia airport on Tuesday evening, taking an approach path that brought us right over midtown Manhattan.  I shot some video, which didn’t turn out perfect, but which is worth seeing.  Will try to get that together soon, although no promises as I’ve been pretty busy.

While we were waiting for our plane in Kansas City, Tawn discovered that his camera has a feature that combines multiple images.  He played around with several interesting ones, including this comparison of our travel outfits:

We are staying with my cousins Bradley and Silvia in the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood in Brooklyn.  I’ve not spent any time in Brooklyn before, so it is nice to explore another borough.  Sadly, Silvia is back in Italy this week visiting her parents, so no opportunity to see her.

Brad and Silvia have a trio of cats, two of which came from Italy when they moved back here a few years ago.  The third cat, which they adopted from the shelter, has one eye and is named Willy. 

The cats seem to be everywhere, all the time!

Thursday morning, Brad had to go into town to work, so Tawn and I started our morning with breakfast at Egg, a southern style breakfast place in the Williamsburg neighborhood.  Above, cousin Brad waiting for the train on the opposite platform.

While not much to look at from the outside, the little patio area was pleasant and the service was friendly.  Oh, and the locally roasted coffee was fantastic!

We sat outdoors and since the table was covered with butcher paper, started putting it to use.  Tawn remembered that today was Mother’s Day in Thailand (which coincides with Her Majesty the Queen’s birthday – August 12th).  After unsuccessfully trying to reach his mother by phone to wish her a happy Mother’s Day, he settled for drawing something for her and taking a picture of it, which he can show her upon his return.

I added my own wishes.  I’ll let the Thai readers evaluate my penmanship or, as the case may be, crayonmanship.

Of course, all this doodling led Tawn to start sketching ideas for our house, based on things he had seen that inspired him:

The food at Egg is really good.  They are known for their buttermilk biscuits, which happen to be a specialty of mine.  I tried them with pork sausage gravy and a side of scrapple.

The biscuits were flaky, but also pretty dense and tough even with the flavorful gravy smothering them.  Points for flavor but points taken away for texture.

Scrapple is a breakfast meat with German/Amish country origins.  It is made by boiling the scrap meat and bones left after butchering a hog, then combining the meat with oatmeal, cornmeal or another thickening grain, and seasoning it.  It doesn’t sound good, perhaps, but it is very tasty.  My mother makes a batch every Christmas and gives it to family members as a gift.  The scrapple at Egg was especially well-seasoned, with some chili powder and anise seeds adding a kick to it.

Tawn had a cheese omelet, bacon, hash browns and a tomato compote.  The eggs were beautifully done and the hash browns were deep-fried and yummy.  The common theme for all their food was that things were well-seasoned.

After lunch, we headed into Manhattan and the Metropolitan Museum of Art.  More about that soon.