BROOKLYN - A Photo Diary - Day 1

I usually land at JFK...
It's huge. It's inconvenient. But I know the way there and back on the subway like the back of my hand.
This time I landed in Jersey (EWR), NEWARK.
I am coming from the West Coast and I didn't want to deal with four trains to Brooklyn, so I grabbed a cab.
Let me re-phrase that..
I got in line with every other tired, sorry looking person that just got off a flight at Neward airport and waited for my turn in line - to grab a cab..
There was a mini-van trying to load a couple of slow-moving people down about a half a block and it caused quite a bit of traffic chaos. The taxis didn't know whether they could or should pass and the regular traffic building up behind them were blaring their horns and making a thorough ruckus. This is all expected and besides taking longer than usual to get a cab, didn't disrupt anything too major.
So I hop in the cab and give the address of the Brooklyn apartment I'd headed to..
I barely noticed that the mini-van I got into didn't have a cab SIGN on the outside. This caused a second of worry and then once we got going, it dropped from my memory as an unnecessary piece of information.
Traffic from Jersey into Brooklyn really wasn't too bad.
I get dropped off in a little under an hour and the cab driver charges a little over $100 (!) OH WELL.
I hand him my card and people are yelling at him to get out of the way (He's parked IN THE WAY.)
I notice he's keying my card number into his cell phone ???! I yell and ask as I'm getting my luggage from the backseat, "Hey! Don't you have a square to swipe it?" Nothing. He's taking his time keying in my card number. AUGH! WhatEVER. Just give me back my card so I can go! 
He finally hands my card back and I'm already up the three-story walk up stairs to my home-away-from-home apartment for about three weeks.
IT IS LOVELY. A large window overlooking the street and a large garden window in back. (Almost everyone in Brooklyn has a view of a garden.) The kitchen is large and devine. The bathroom is small and trendy (very NY). And even better yet, the stores, bars, coffee shops right outside my new door are fantastic! SCORE!

Right away my daughter comes over to visit. We had it planned and it's wonderful to meet a loved one upon arriving in NY. She hopped a Brooklyn train because she lives fairly close by. We go walking around to grab me some overnight groceries and find THE little Italian restaurant across from the apartment. It looks GREAT! So we stop in for dinner ---- along with (eventually) everyone else in the neighborhood. It's a Sunday evening and everyone and their mothers are going to this little neighborhood place for dinner. It's trendy but cozy and my daughter and I share a large pizza at the bar. It is wonderful to see her face and hear her laugh in person. Great. She goes home afterwards and I am left to settle into new sounds and smells in NY. (Again! NY! Again so soon! Life is divine.)

THAT WAS MY FIRST DAY BACK IN NY...
Here are photos of the place.....