A trip to IKEA

Getting around can be quite a time consuming chore in NYC, especially if you're schlepping stuff. Take a trip to IKEA, for example. Its located on the mid-western tip of Brooklyn in an area called Red Hook. There are no subway stops nearby, so without a car, you must either take the subway to Brooklyn and then hop on a bus. Or, you can take the subway to the southern tip of Manhattan and catch a ferry ride to Red Hook. IKEA's brokered a deal with a boat company where they provide "free" transportation to and from IKEA as long as you spend $5 when you're there. The ferry costs $5, but its deducted from your total purchase at check-out upon presentation of your ferry receipt. Not a bad gig, eh? Its a nice 15 minute boat ride, but the total trip seems to take forever!

I went there in July to acquire a few things for our new apartment and had to take a cab home because my stuff was too cumbersome to handle by myself up and down the stairs on the subway. $45 cab. Ouch. One hour in traffic....one way. The ferry only goes every 40 minutes, so you have to try and time your subway travel appropriately. Yeah, right. In July I arrived 10 minutes after a ferry departure so had to wait 30 minutes. If you're killing time the view's not bad, as the Brooklyn Bridge spans the East River in the backdrop.

Dreading another cumbersome trip alone, I told Peter he was coming with me to schlepp the stuff last Saturday. I had a few things to return from July. We met up at 3:00pm and took the subway to downtown on the east side of the financial district. We walked a few blocks and arrived at Slip B at 3:46pm to learn that the 3:40pm ferry had just departed. We decided to grab an early dinner at Subway since the next departure was at 4:20pm. It was very cold so we ran back and forth to warm up! We caught the 4:20 and arrived at IKEA at 4:38pm. We weren't doing any shopping this trip, just returning stuff. Peter bought 15 chocolate hazelnut bars at $1 each while I waited in line. They told me my receipt was too old for returns, so I only got store credit. Grrr...

We froze while waiting outside, but caught the 5:20 return ferry. We arrived home (upper W side of Manhattan by Central Park) around 6:30pm. Imagine if we had squeezed in any time for shopping!?

I shouldn't complain. Despite the time commitment, it was a fun trip and we got two boat rides! Peter was a good schlepper and his regular witty self, making my trip very enjoyable.