Location: Liberty Harbor RV Park
Today was epic. My expectations were set pretty low, not thrilled about our camping situation or not knowing how our chocolate walk-about would turn out. Things could not have gone better. Here's the view from where we're camped. It just so happens to be right next to the water taxi to Manhattan. Perfect.
Mid morning we took the short water taxi ride from Liberty Harbor NJ over to Manhattan. It dropped us off at Battery Park. We strolled The Esplanade enjoying the city park and awesome views of the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island.
What a cool city parkway.
We walked to Pier 11, near the Brooklyn Bridge and then took another water taxi over to Brooklyn.
From there we walked to the Red Hook neighborhood of Brooklyn in search of Raaka Chocolate, a handcrafted bean to bar chocolate maker. They are one of my absolute favorites. They make virgin chocolate which means they don't roast their beans but conch at 150 degrees to develop some flavors.
My favorite bar is their Bourbon Cask Aged chocolate. I first encountered their chocolate at the Ferry Building in SF. I was really looking forward to visiting their chocolate making facility in Brooklyn.
Bingo...here I am at the source, standing in front of their bourbon barrels, tasting some of their chocolate. Sooooo good!
We met Peter, their Community Outreach Director, and he was so incredibly nice. He gave us an impromptu tour of their facility and also gave us some tips on making bourbon flavored chocolate. I love the openness of the handcrafted bean to bar community. Everyone is so willing to share information.
One of the unique things about Raaka Chocolate is they use an optical sorter instead of a conventional winnower to remove the shell from their nibs. Here's Ned checking it out with Peter.
This experience was so worth the walk!
Not too far away from Raaka is Cacao Prieto. Their claim to fame is they are both a distillery and a handcrafted chocolate maker.
They have a really interesting space with a gorgeous copper still next to some cool chocolate making equipment.
They have a great presentation of their bourbons and chocolate. You can do bourbon tasting as well.
Yes, we bought lots of chocolate at both places...research purposes.
We walked back to the DUMBO area. So far we logged a good 6 miles hoofing it. We couldn't believe it was near 4 o'oclock by this time! Where had the time gone? We decided to visit our all time favorite pizza pie place, Grimaldi's. There was a long line, but so worth it!
14 years ago, when we were dating, we had stumbled upon this place. So fun to revisit it again. (And even better to be still crazy in love with this guy!)
We were going to walk the Brooklyn Bridge back, but decided to save our legs for walking around Manhattan. Another water taxi ride back and then we stumbled upon this...
We went inside and talked to the security guard. It's just an office building now, but in 1904 it was the cocoa trading exchange. There's a mural on the wall showing the traders on the floor. Very cool.
In keeping with our National Park theme, we walked by the first American Government Building, where George Washington was officially sworn into office.
Unfortunately, it was past closing hours by this time so we couldn't go inside.
Next stop was the World Trade Center Memorial. Such a beautiful space.
We continued our walking tour of Manhattan, but at about 10 miles of walking we finally called Uncle. We took a water taxi back to our $100 a night parking lot space.
But don't feel too sorry for us about the "camping" situation. We are parked at the Liberty Harbor Yacht Club. What a better way to top off the evening than having beers and Manhattans at the Surf City Yacht Club bar watching the boats come in with the NY skyline in the backdrop. Epic Day indeed.
Posted with Blogsy
