Everyday Explorations: Brooklyn

This past week I traveled to Brooklyn, New York to teach my first SOAR training. Back in October we held a SOAR training in the financial district of NYC and stayed (literally) in Time Square so this trip was different for two reasons - first I was actually facilitating this training and second we were in Brooklyn, which made the experience ten times better! This time I feelt like I got to explore some 'non-touristy' parts of NYC and had a couple of hours to walk around after the training and before I caught the train back to Albany.

We arrived Wednesday night and immediately grabbed some NYC pizza and headed to our hotel which I must admit was in the more 'sketchy' part of Brooklyn, but the hotel (Sheraton Brooklyn) was really nice and the bed was amazingly comfortable. Our hotel was about a half mile from the training site so we were able to walk both days. My first training was awesome - I felt like I knew the material and the trainees were really responsive - I am excited to see some great SOAR applications come out of this group. And did I mention that we ate at Hale and Hearthy everyday for lunch? Oh man - they need to come to Albany because this place is amazing!

After the training concluded Friday afternoon I had a couple of hours before I had to hop a cab back to Penn Station so I decided to explore Brooklyn - Brooklyn Heights to be specific. I am in LOVE with Brooklyn Heights! Who knew such a cute place exsisted in Brooklyn (and only about a mile/mile and a half from a pretty sketchy area)! I ended up walking down Montague Street which is an awesome street with a ton of shops and great little places to eat, the street also has great architure and a real 'neighborhood' feel. I picked up some cupcakes from Crumbs Bake Shop to take back to Albany (I happen to know a guy and his daughter who are pretty obsessed with these cupcakes and I thought it would be a nice surprise to bring some back).

I was about to head back to the hotel to grab my luggage and hail a cab when I spotted it - the water! About three or four blocks from Montague Street was the Brooklyn Heights Waterfront Park. I made my way there and was greeted by an awesome view - you would have never known you were in Brooklyn - let alone a big city. The view looked toward Manhattan and the Statue of Liberty and I was able to take some great pictures with my new iPhone 5's panorama setting!