Firstly, to check it off the list! Queens is one of the five boroughs of New York City. How could I say I'd live in NYC when I hadn't even been to Queens? (Check out this clip on the five accents of New York... You tell your friends, 'I'm from Queens, I live there. It's not fun.')
Secondly, King of Queens, is a fantastic comedy... Ok, I know, that is not a very deep or well thought out reason to visit Queens, but let's face it - New York is nothing if not a living television set. So, I went with it, and E, R and I jumped on a Number 7 Subway to Queens.
We got off at Flushing Meadow Park at the Met Stadium.
First point of call was to stop at the park's map to make a game plan. E and R fought it out - would we visit the planet pond or the World Fair globe fountain first? E won (obviously) and it was off to planet pond. The park was crowded with kids and families enjoying Saturday morning sports. It was pleasant, but it was obvious the budget for maintenance was a little less than that at Central Park. (Turns out little was a gross underestimate).
We found the planet pond quickly. Pity it didn't seem to have any connection with planets. The closer we got the more we realized just how filthy it was.
Ok, no drama - R got a few good pictures by zooming up on the 5 inch square of clean surface area (uses imperial measurements, check!) We laughed and took it in our stride. Given the group's average height was 5'1'' it was a little stride, but a stride nonetheless - we all agreed that the globe would be better. Right?
The walk to the globe was not promising. What advertised as a walk by the pools was actually a walk along an empty blue ditch. Chin up! To prove we were having fun, we all jumped in and went "swimming".
So this was Queens, eh?
Luckily the globe was brilliant! (Is is possible that, as E pointed out, we were just so disappointed in our trip so far, that we were just excited to see something half decent.) The globe is left over from the World Fair in '88. It's breathtakingly huge and surrounded by fountains.
There were kids and adults alike playing in the fountains and climbing the globe. Around the edges people sunbathed. I actually found this less odd than the mass numbers of people who trek to Central park to sun bake in swimsuits... Why do this, when there is no water!!
Of course, the day continued to get better - we came across Eddie's Garden, donated to the park by Eddie's friend.
R, E and I all took about a thousand pictures - which proved E was right - we were really starved for entertainment. As if to drive her point home, we caught her talking to a bird who was taking a dip in a icky looking puddle....
"Seriously, you're going to swim in that! Can't you do better??" <Looks around and sighs> "OK, I guess not."
And with that, we headed back to Manhattan... ashamed to discover what snobs we have become, but happy to be home. I guess I just love living on a small island with no open spaces. Should I just sign up for a Agoraphobia Anonymous meeting now?
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