One Fine Fall Evening in Brooklyn

Growing up at the Jersey Shore, New York City meant one thing and one thing only: the mean streets of Manhattan. Even when I lived in New York City from 2011-2013 (also known simply as "the city" in that part of the world), Manhattan was, for all intents and purposes, New York City.

Of course there were stories of the hipsters taking over Brooklyn, the new restaurants popping up on the other side of the East River, the flight out of "the city" towards the outer boroughs for cheaper rent, bigger apartments, and overall, just better city living than Manhattan can provide those who don't have millions of dollars to their name. But even still all these years later, for me "the city" still means "Manhattan."

However, back in 2015, my sister-in-law and her husband were living in Brooklyn. On our way to Florida for Thanksgiving (and ultimately our trip to France after that), Ben and I were in town for one night where we spent a brief evening with them exploring this other borough and I discovered - a little late, admittedly - that Brooklyn is a pretty interesting place to wander and investigate.

For the uninitiated, New York City is, actually, more than the towering sky scrapers of Manhattan. It's composed of five boroughs - the most famous of which is Manhattan, of course - but also Brooklyn, Queens, the Bronx and Staten Island.

(Image from here).

As you can see from the image above that Manhattan makes up only a tiny part of New York City real estate, and yet it's probably the first place most people think of when they think of "the city." Yet, Brooklyn has for at least the past decade become a place where a lot of new and interesting New York City culture comes from. My own reticence to visit Brooklyn derives from the stories of the families of my friends growing up, many of whom left Brooklyn and the other boroughs to live a quieter, more peaceful life down the Shore than the ones they had an hour north. The stories I heard never exactly gave these boroughs a sheen that made them sound appealing, and so despite the fact that the world in general was telling me to visit Brooklyn, Manhattan still claimed my attention when I happened to be on the East Coast.

However, our little visit with my in-laws has convinced me that when I do have more time to visit "the city" in the future, I need to expand my aperture a bit to see the parts I have yet to explore, to give the outer boroughs a fair shot, and to get to know a place I used to call home in a more thorough and interesting way.

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After checking out my in-law's apartment, they asked if we wanted to take a walk through the neighborhood and visit Prospect Park, a 10 minute walk from their place. We agreed, but we mentioned that we had a dinner reservation at Pok Pok Ny (which closed in 2018) later in the evening, and were assured that we would have no trouble making it in time (we did).

I should note that I was not expecting to have a jaunt out in the neighborhood when we met up with my sister-in-law that I didn't bother to bring my nice camera with me. Instead, I ambled around with my trusty phone taking the pictures. Next time I'll be better prepared, though I lament not being able to better capture the perfect fall-like conditions on that lovely late November evening.

Our first order of business was strolling past all the beautiful brownstone façades of Brooklyn's Prospect Lefferts Gardens neighborhood before finally reaching the entrance to Prospect Park, a charming and peaceful respite from the hustle and bustle of the city beyond its borders.

Once within the confines of the park, we reached Concert Grove, a large open space framed by beautiful trees with lovely fall foliage gracing a few stragglers.

However, many of the trees had already lost their leaves for the season, creating intricate and beautiful silhouettes against the darkening sky.

Growing up in this region, I took these silhouettes for granted at this time of year, as I was never a fan of winter (hence my eventual relocation to Hawai‘i six-thousand miles away) and always felt a sense of dread as the trees lost their leaves. Now, as a visitor I find them fascinating and so unlike the trees I see everyday in my tropical home.

Another thing that Prospect Park featured were incredibly still water surfaces that allowed the reflection of those same trees and the lovely sunset to bounce off of. This is where I really began to regret leaving my camera behind, but my phone managed to do an admirable job despite its technical limitations.

Above and below, these pictures are looking down into the water and capturing the autumn reflections - and a few branches/leaves - of the scene around us.

We continued on, taking in the peaceful scene around us, quite a diversion from the liveliness beyond the boundaries of the park. Having lived in Manhattan not too far from Central Park and Riverside Park, I knew the magic these quiet respites can provide in such a fast-paced setting. I was equally pleased to find such a lovely place here in Brooklyn as well.

We eventually reached the Prospect Park Boat House, which essentially marked the end of our walk. I hope to come back to this space in the summer sometime and see what it looks like as peddle boats and kayaks launch here onto the lake.

Following our stroll through Prospect Park, we bid our farewells to Ben's sister and her husband (we would be reunited with them a few days later in Florida at their grandparents' house) and took a taxi to Pok Pok Ny. Known for their attention to detail and quality ingredients, as well as chef Andy Ricker's loving homage to Northern Thailand cooking, the restaurant had been high on our list of must-try's when Ben and I visited NYC together (which, sadly, doesn't happen all that frequently). Fortunately, we tried the restaurant before it closed in 2018 for good, sampling dishes that were full of flavor and reminded us of our own travels to that area of the world so many years ago. While we're sad to be unable to go back, we're grateful we were able to go in the first place.

Overall, this short diversion was mostly unexpected (other than the Pok Pok Ny dinner), but has stood out as one of my more memorable NYC experiences simply because it helped me realize that the outer boroughs don't have to be so intimidating or foreign, and are just as worthy of exploration as Manhattan. While my return trips to NYC up to this point have been short and often with a singular purpose in mind (usually to meet up with grad school friends for a meal), the next time I have extra time in the city I'll be sure to expand my view outward into the neighborhoods I have yet to explore, but hope to someday soon.

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Visiting Brooklyn's Prospect Park

Website: Visit Prospect Park

To learn more about the history of the park, visit here.

The park is open daily from 5am - 1am, though various attractions have different areas and many close at sunset.

Multiple subway lines service the park - for more information about which one will work best for you, visit the MTA's website.