When a Manhattanite goes to Brooklyn all the world will stare. They might laugh or jeer or spit, or they might applaud the isolated islander's brave new soul. Wait hold on, did you say spit? What cretins! Which neighborhood? Where?! First of all, a lady Manhattanite never tells. And second, a lady Manhattanite might consider telling if she had even the faintest idea as to her own whereabouts at any point during her epic Brooklyn weekend Walk Out.

It all started on a glorious 70-degree Saturday morning with an invitation to brunch in Brooklyn's Carroll Gardens. The unsuspecting lady (who never turns down a brunch) stepped out of her apartment with half an hour's time to make the journey-lesson number 1: always leave an hour's traveling time when coming from Manhattan's Upper West Side on your way into Brooklyn. Now because this particular lady can burn rubber (soles that is), she arrived only fifteen minutes late to a sumptuous feast prepared by two gracious hosts-lesson number 2: Brooklynites have bigger kitchens and they know how to use them.

Then she was off again, headed back to her island for a day of gallery hopping and Shake Shack-ing at Madison Square park on 23rd and 5th because yes, real ladies do eat at the Shake Shack. One nap and a belly rub later she was ready to go; this time, a walk across the Brooklyn Bridge. Underfoot, the wooden walkway spelled relief for her aching feet, while all around her lights in both boroughs were beginning to flicker on as the sun went slowly down. Standing below the massive stone arches her companions wondered aloud, "if the lady is three stones tall, how many lady's-tall is the arch?" Looking up was dizzying and they all lost count.

That night in Park Slope she enjoyed a restful sleep at the home of one lady Brooklynite-lesson number 3: less traffic noise in Brooklyn neighborhoods means undisturbed beauty sleep-and awoke on Sunday with a mind to find the Promenade. It was the kind of day for getting lost they decided, and let no misstep(s) befoul this first glorious high-70's-weather day. From Park Slope east through South Brooklyn, across the Gowanus River, north through Carroll Gardens, Cobble Hill and Brooklyn Heights, they walked along the Promenade on the East River ending up in Dumbo.

There munching a sandwich in the park under the Brooklyn Bridge, they and the other sunbathers and dogs witnessed a small wedding ceremony. While tourists wearing I Heart NY t-shirts clicked their cameras at the strangers our lady took off her shoes fell back into the grass and mused, "I Heart Brooklyn," that's lesson number 4.

Annie Costner

New York, NY