NY trip: part2- Dim Sum & Spring Sun

Our family took the subway to Chinatown, Lower Manattan to sample a dim sum brunch. The first choice was found closed for renovations, but a phone consultation with friends with access to Internet quickly yielded the consensus view of next best. The restaurant was upstairs over 3 floors, access obtained by taking a number from smartly attired ladies at the elevators in walkie-talkie communication with authorities aloft. Given the estimate of waiting time we headed for a nearby open space with a statue to a pioneer and war memorial arch.

Up the street was the skirl of bagpipes, but the tune was not Scottish. We could see a hearse topped with a large flower framed photo, and many funeral limos behind, but the pipers were not in sight. The music stopped and the cortège moved down the street. A semi-trailer passing in the opposite direction filled the intersection of the square; the cortège squeezed past, but the rest of the traffic went into gridlock and a taxi dodging narrowly escaped putting its bonnet under the semi. Vehicles disentangled and the stream of the city resumed its flow.
A little more than an hour after receiving our number it was called, and dim sum was duly enjoyed and consumed in approximately the same time as we had been waiting.

We returned to Brooklyn and walked to the Botanic Gardens, which have burst into flower. Although the cherries were still in bud, the magnolias lit the horizon like white fire. We noticed plentiful squirrels, which Jeremy told us are too common to remark, but he said if a raccoon were to be spotted that would be interesting. On leaving the gardens we were thus glad to sight one such, which had just retrieved a banana skin from a trash can and retreated to its lair in a pergola.

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