Brooklyn

Dan ad I like to sneak away to NYC when we can, and we've gotten in the habit of driving to Poughkeepsie, staying overnight, and then catching the train in the morning rather than doing the round trip in one day. It makes the trip a little more exciting, and hotels in Poughkeepsie aren't that expensive.
So we stayed at the Hampton Inn on Saturday night (a great hotel if you're a germaphobe like me--it's really clean and comfortable) and made our way to New York yesterday. We wanted to visit the aquarium and then find the McSweeney's store, both in Brooklyn. We were pretty excited to explore a new area as we usually just stay in Manhattan. Here are some highlights from our trip:

While waiting for the F train, we saw some rats on the tracks, which got Dan all excited. He tried to take a picture of them, but they scurried away too quickly. When we got to Coney Island (which is where the aquarium is located), we (I) immediately ran over to the ocean. Although it was supposed to be hot and humid, it was really chilly at the shore, but this didn't stop tons of people from laying out in their bathing suits. Dan convertly snapped this photo of this little scene:

The water was obviously freezing, a fact which I investigated by standing where a wave could wash over my feet. As soon as it hit, I squealed and ran away at the exact same moment an 8 year old did the exact same thing! I'm a grown up!
Next, we walked along the boardwalk a little bit and had some lunch before going into the aquarium. The best part was this enormous walrus who kept swimming directly towards the glass and then turning at the last second, bumping the side of his body against it. At one point, she laid her entire belly against the glass, and my face was located in an area that allowed me to identify it as a "she." We also saw the sea lion show, which was cool.
Finally, we went to a showing of Planet Earth: Oceans in 4-D (dimension four: they spray you with water). While they were corralling people into the the small theater, this insane woman was sitting in the middle of a row and refused to move to the end so that other people could come in (her excuses for not being able to move 3 seats down? She was pregnant and she'd paid for her ticket!) until the staff threatened to call security. Much to my dismay, she moved (while yelling out to no one in particular "I want a refund....by the way!"). I would have loved to see security remove her. After the movie, we considered following her to see if hilarity ensued, but we decided to leave instead.
After we'd had our fill of aquatic life, we set off in search of the McSweeney's store. Dan has wanted to go to it for awhile, but we hadn't been able to track down an address until now. Except when we got to the storefront, it was actually a dry cleaners. Thankfully, there were some hipsters nearby who directed us to the actual store. It was interesting, the sell all kinds of "superhero supplies" and all of the proceeds go to a creative writing tutoring center in the back.
That was all we had time for. We wanted to check out the botanical garden, but that will have to happen another time.