brooklyn flea

Today, sandwiched between a few errands, we stopped in the lovely Williamsburgh Savings Bank Tower to check out the Brooklyn Flea. Now, I've browsed through flea markets in the Midwest, and while these city vendors hawked very similar items, the whole atmosphere here felt a bit more hip than rustic. Perhaps that was because of the shoppers, trendy 20-somethings from upscale Brooklyn neighborhoods. Or perhaps it was because of the location itself. Most of the booths were situated on the main floor of the bank building, a few were up on the mezzanine, and several more were hidden downstairs in the bank's vault. At any rate, though, it was fun to wander around.

We didn't buy anything, but we wanted to. We fell in love with a collection of child-size wooden chairs which, we were told, originally came from an old school in Washington D.C. They were in excellent condition, and, at $20 each, were really quite decently priced. In the end, though, we decided we wanted them more than needed them, and that anyway, we wouldn't have anywhere to put them even if we did take a couple of them home. C'est la vie.

Opting to enjoy the rare bit of today's warm January sunshine, we walked along Atlantic Avenue to Court Street (our next stop was to pick up a few things at Trader Joe's) instead of taking the subway. If we weren't so weighed down with children and baggage, we would have meandered in and out of some of the shops we passed. I'd like to walk that route again sometime and poke my nose in farther than the storefront windows. Another day, perhaps.