A day at the Meadow

Over the long July 4th weekend the Mets were playing my hometown Reds so we thought we'd head up to Flushing Meadows and explore before checking out the game that night.

Flushing Meadows has a long history and a ton of activities inside!

First up, the Queens Zoo. This zoo is a lot like Central Park and Prospect Park Zoo, with several exhibits set up in a ring around a sea lion pit. The zoo was small but fun.  The focus is on animals from the Americas. There is also an aviary inside a Buckminster Fuller geodesic dome. The structure was originally part of the 64 World's Fair (more on that later).

Flushing Meadows has been home to 2 World's Fairs in 1939 and 1964 and there are still remnants of both events. The Queens Museum of Art is housed in a building from the 1939 World's Fair. Though the building was closed when we were there, it is worth checking out. It fits our budget ($5 suggested donation) and houses temporary and permanent exhibits including the New York City Panorama. The Panorama is a model of the city, originally built for the 1964 world's fair and it includes EVERY building in the city built before 1992, at 9,335 sq ft and with 895,000 individual structures (and airplanes!) it is absolutely worth the trip.

The 1964 World's Fair introduced us to Tomorrowland (presented by GM) helping pave the way (heh heh) for the automobile domination of much of the country. But transportation planning philosophies aside, the 64 world's fair also gave us the Unisphere!

The fountain has been out of use for awhile but that should change soon with the restoration project currently underway.

Unfortunatly, another relic from the 64 World's Fair has not aged as well...

It seems like every world's fair has a signature overlook tower. Seattle has the Space Needle, San Antonio has the Tower of the America's, and Knoxville has the Sunsphere. New York has 3 towers, all built as part of the New York State Pavilion. While I believe the other towers mentioned are all currently servicing tourists, the New York State Pavilion looks like this:

Which I mean looks kinda cool, but in the worst sort of way. I think the city is supposed to be fixing it up but I don't think there is a time table.

After wandering around the park, we thought we might try the Queens Botanical Garden, which was started for the 1939 World's Fair and moved for the 1964 World's Fair. After a long walk under some highways and across a pedestrian bridge we found this:

Looks pretty closed huh? We thought so too. Upon further review of the garden map, it turns out that this is the "Meadow" section of the park and the entrance is on the opposite side. Someone needs to work on signage around this place. If you want to try your luck the admission price shouldn't break your small wallet ($4, $2 for students). If you've been there in the past you should note the new admission price since this is the first season they've charged. During less "green" seasons you can still get in free.

So after a long day exploring Flushing Meadows we headed over to Citi Field. On a holiday weekend, with the first place Reds in town, there weren't a lot of available tickets on resale sites (Stubhub, etc) and the scalpers weren't really in the mood to do business with me and my cheapness. We resigned to buy the cheapest seats in the house:

And then move down to here:

And then we watched the Reds win with help from a controversial call that pissed off all the Mets fans! Fun times in Queens!

Philly!

OHEMGEE! Where do I even start??

Speed Round 1

Ummm… so almost one month ago now… Brian and I went to Philadelphia! We paid a whopping 5 bucks for a round trip on the Megabus! They have super sweet deals… including free round trips if you catch them at the right time! Check them out!

We stayed with our very generous friend David Emery in his sweet apartment across from the Philadelphia Museum of Art! (Not visible from this view… patience.)

We saw the Liberty Bell (always fo frizzle)

Ran into some awesome Folk Art on the street.

Watched a single peacock pursue 5 completely uninterested peahens at the zoo… for 10 minutes.

Oh wait. REWIND! Brian, David and I got into the Philadelphia Zoo all for the price of 1 child! That’s $39 dollars in savings! The trick here is to linger sketchily outside of the Zoo entrance for an extended period of time with your friends… huddle over a map and point out all the things you wish you could see. The manager will be totally weirded out that he will come over to ask what you’re doing. All you have to do is look up at him with sad puppy dog eyes and say that you love animals so much but can’t afford the entrance fee. Voila! …So maybe that’s not exaaactly what happened… but it’s actually pretty close!

Then we dragged our gimpy good friend David Emery out for a walk along the Schuylkill River. There are sculptures all over that city! What a dream! (This one is a bit more phallic than dreamy… but yeah.)

And we of course went to the Philadelphia Museum of Art for some eye candy. Balllerrrr. And since it was the first Sunday of the month... admission was suggested donation!


Umm and RODIN MUSEUM ANYONE? (Also suggested donation)

A fine establishment indeed.

Here is Brian as one of The Three Shades

End.

We <3 Animals (Brooklyn)

I'm sick again!  How wonderful!  But it's okay, because Brian and I had a lovely day of free fun in Brooklyn.  He's still there watching the UC game at a friend's place... but I called it a night and came home to snuggle it up with my blanket... and you know, write this.

So first for your viewing pleasure: a picture of Brian from Halloween day--free "boo-rito" in hand!  Please take note of his amazing bib.  We bought a little roll of foil from the grocery store across the street and made our "costumes" literally as we walked over to Chipotle.  I made a bracelet and he made this bib.  We're good, i know!

And here we are in our real Halloween costumes, which I'm not going to lie... are kind of sad.  We went to the thrift store the morning of and I bought that shirt for $1.99 and Brian bought his overalls for like $10.00?  I was a farm girl (i've got freckles and pigtails...) and he was some sort of factory worker (i used my mascara to dirty up his face...)?  I don't know.  We were confused too... but whatevaaaaah

Now on to today's fun activities!
Brooklyn Animal Resource Coalition
We woke up semi-early and went to "BARC" to walk dogs and play with cats!  Not only free, but fun!  and not only fun but nice!  This is how it works:  You show up to the place, fill out a form if it is your first time, they hand you a dog and give you a little bit of their background, behavior summary, and things to watch out for.  Then you walk the dog around the neighborhood for about an hour and enjoy the scenery!  Easy Peasy!  Just make sure you check their volunteer hours on the website so you actually have a dog to walk when you get there.

Here are pictures of Brian and I walking Jenny.  (He was very proud of the 2nd photo so I had to post it for him ;) )  She was so cute and liked to play in the crunchy leaves (like me!).  Most dogs are actually much bigger and stronger... typically Pits and things.  We were given this little one because I told them I had never walked a dog before.  If you go, you'll most likely get handed something a little more challenging :)

On Saturdays you can walk dogs from 9am til noon and you can start playing with cats at noon, conveniently!  So after we finished walking Jenny we went into this cat room type thing and loved on a bunch of cats.  I had a lot of fun, but Brian was a little frightened.  A handful of the cats scratch and/or bite people for no apparent reason.  Luckily, my cat at home does both so I'm used to walking away with a few miniature wounds. (Today, I left with a scratch from a cat named Scratch...)  But don't be afraid.  Most of the cats are super friendly and the ones who might harm you are labeled with caution signs!

Prospect Park Zoo: $7 Admission, Free with membership!
After BARC we made our way over to Prospect Park.  We took our time strolling around and crunching the leaves.  So beautiful and relaxing!  We even ran into our friend Robert May who was also enjoying a day in the park.  Eventually the 3 of us made our way over to the zoo, which we got into for free because we have memberships (totally worth it for zoo lovers like ourselves!  go here for more info: Bronx Zoo Membership. We have the "Individual" one... which is really for 2 people because you can always bring a guest for free.)  But if you don't have a membership, admission is only $7!  This zoo is great.  Very manageable in size and very interactive (Take your kids!).  You can see everything in about 2 hours. Fun!

Brooklyn Museum: Target First Saturdays
And since we were in the neighborhood we walked over to "BAM" for free art!  Every first Saturday of the month, entrance is free and they have fun activities and events going on.  Today there was a great band called The Beats playing and all sorts of booze and foodstuffs (which cost money, so no thank you.)  On the website, all of the events are listed that happen between 5pm and 11pm... which I just now noticed.  You can really make a whole night out of this thing!  Calendar marked for next month!  I suggest getting there a little early since there may be lines for events that you need tickets for.

So yeah, that was about it!  The only thing we spent money on today was our brunch at The Bagel Store in Williamsburg.  This place is so delicious and reasonably priced.  They also have day-old bagels that they sell 7 for $2.25, which I had to buy.  I got all sorts of specialty bagels that I cannot wait to eat!!  (I'll write a blog on bagels soon... because i love them...)  And for dinner I'm eating leftovers!  Today was a cheap success!