Maggie and I have sort of an understood tradition that we do markets together. The Brooklyn Flea every summer, and the Chelsea Market or Union Square holiday market every Christmas. I’ve really wanted to go to Smorgasburg since I first heard about it, so yesterday I loaded H into the car and we had out first adventure on Maggie’s home turf.

But Smorgasburg just wasn’t for us. At all.

I was late as usual, and the place was just PACKED when I arrived. I was expecting a laid back, sleepy crowd like at the Flea. But half of Brooklyn turned out to enjoy the beautiful weather.

And I don’t blame them. Who could resist these views?

But you couldn’t move for hipsters. That and terrible cell reception meant meeting up with Maggie at 1pm actually became 2 by the time we found each other. And the market was in an unshaded lot, so it was all open sun and long lines for food. It just wasn’t going to work with H on such a hot day. If it was drizzly, or even if I didn’t have the baby, we might have been able to handle it. There were definitely some cool food spots there. But the insanity of trying to find each other in such a crowd just killed it for Maggie and me. We had a long discussion about our uncoolness because we should like trendy urban stuff like this but actually…don’t.

H, as always though, was cool as a cucumber.

We left the waterfront and had a perfect, relaxed, easy lunch a few blocks away at Osteria Il Paiolo. And that was a perfect Maggie day. The food was great.

H was super chill.

And Maggie and I did tons of catching up, we haven’t seen each other since Christmas. In the end…I loved yesterday. It was a much-needed girly break from the Mommy Zone I’m in most of the time. And we stopped at nearby Momofuku Milk Bar for cookies.