The Evolution of a Sunday Afternoon

Last year I hated Sunday afternoons. I was working full-time, going to school full-time and Sunday meant the beginning of another long, and crazy week. Sunday was for cramming in as much reading and schoolwork as humanly possible, while it seemed the rest of the world had fun. Well, that year's over and this year is much more tolerable. And today, I had fun.

My day began with a stroll down a few blocks of the Atlantic Antic. New Yorkers love street fairs. They dot the landscape of the city from late April until the end of October (or so). You'll turn a corner and suddenly - hello street fair! Each neighborhood usually has one at least once during street fair season. Well, today's street fair was on Atlantic Avenue. Atlantic Avenue is a long street that pretty much runs the length of Brooklyn, and happens to be located right next to my building. You can see my building on the left in the picture below.

This particular street fair stretches from my immediate neighborhood to a shopping area I sometimes frequent which is about 25 minutes walk away. So, the fair stretches for at least a mile. And while it contains the usual street fair suspects (the ubiquitous mozzarepa or arepas with mozzarella cheese, funnel cake, grilled corn on the cob stands - just to name a few), there were also local businesses selling various merchandise at rock bottom prices. Restaurants were selling great food, bars were offering various drinks and the general atmosphere was one of excitement and enjoyment on a beautiful New York City late-summer day. I picked M. up a shirt from a local store called Brooklyn Industries (www.brooklynindustries.com) for only five dollars! And it would typically cost almost $30. So, browsing for merchandise like that kept me entertained despite the masses of people stopping dead in the middle of traffic flow patterns for no apparent reason.

We also live close to the Transit Museum, which houses and preserves buses, trains and automobiles from New York's history. On various occasions (such as this), the museum will bring out a few specimens from their collection. And some of them were pretty cool (disclaimer - I have no idea who any of these people are as I was walking around alone but hopefully they won't mind being on the internet!). So I wandered over to check out a few of the vintage forms of transportation.

When the crush of aimless and annoying people became too much, I wandered off to check out a few stores on a nearby street. My good shopping karma continued, and I found several really cute items on sale. Next up on the afternoon agenda is a little planning for the week ahead, and making a batch of light granola for M.'s breakfasts this week. Sunday afternoons are a great thing. :)

More vintage transportation pictures below...