Kathleen is a very sweet, helpful person. The cottage is very cute but needs some updating. The banana bread was very good! As far as Staten Island goes, we didn't find much to do, but the commute to the other boroughs was pretty seemless on the weekend. If you park at the Staten Island ferry, make sure your ticket on the dashboard is showing the date and time. I never gave it a thought and got a ticket because I had it upside down!