At the very end of September, right before I took the LMSW exam, I decided I needed a break. I needed water, and I needed dessert. I researched a way to get both.

Erik and I took the free IKEA shuttle bus out to Red Hook and started following the beach grass:

Red Hook is a formerly industrial area turned residential and swanky. We passed IKEA …

… and eventually sighted water!

Back behind IKEA, there is a whole world of waterfront parkway honoring the industrial history of the area.

We did some modeling …

  

… and then continued on our dessert mission.

This sign was not incredibly helpful with helping us locate our destination, but we forged ahead nonetheless.

A ha! Getting closer …

Warmer …

Finally, when we thought we could not follow one more arrow, we arrived!!

We each ordered a swingle, the dessert of my dreams.

A swingle is a 4-inch key lime pie tart, frozen on a stick and dipped in dark chocolate.

Pretty much the best dessert imaginable:

Right across from Steve’s Authentic Key Lime Pie shop, we saw this:

The best garden ever to go with the best dessert ever!

The garden was lush with tomatoes, peppers, beans, eggplant, and tons of other beautiful veggies, including some Italian zucchini craziness!

I had never seen anything growing like this before! They looked like giant, thick pea pods growing from overhead vines. I had to call in the expert (my mom) to ascertain their exact identity.

We walked out past the garden to more waterfront parkway and enjoyed the view. Once again, note the industrial-turned-residentialness of it all:

Plus the swank of a departing cruise ship:

And prime viewing of the Statue of Liberty.

Waves!

We took a quick run through this adorable old barge/museum:

Fishing:

We relaxed with the water a bit more and then set out for our secondary destination:

Fairway!

We stocked up on some extras that we don’t get through the CSA and then meandered back toward IKEA to get the return bus.

We were sidetracked, however, into making a record-time swing through the showroom, since Erik had never been.

I feel in love with some bedding, so we did make a small purchase, too.

Yayyyy, new duvet set 🙂 I am so excited to sleep under these pretty sheets every night now. I spent the next week studying on top of them and eventually passing my test. So there is something to be said for the motivation potential of water, swingles, and new bedding. And Brooklyn for providing it all.