Yesterday I walked over to Astoria Park with a couple friends. The parks in NYC seem to be all huge in comparison to the neighborhood parks that I grew up with.
This particular park has a swimming pool that was used for the Olympic Trials in '36 and '64. (Check out the virtual tour listed under "Queens" here.) It's great just to stand there and envision what it must have been like - they even have a couple spots where torches were lit for the event.
The pool doesn't open until July but then it is free! Something (I believe) the city does with all public pools. The bummer is that now the once Olympic-trial famous diving area now looks like this -
The park is also set up against the East River so you can look over the water and see Manhattan.
(In case you aren't totally clear where Queens sits compared to Manhattan - here's a link to a map you can explore. I live close to LaGuardia Airport.)
Later that night a group of friends and I checked out the Bohemian Hall & Beer Garden. We had to stand in line to get in. Mugs $5 and Pitchers $14. They had American and Bohemian choices for food (burgers, fries, dumplings, etc) there too. It definitely had a college party vibe to it. Mostly people were our age or younger. The garden opens @ noon and closes at 3am or 4am depending on the day. It shares the block with an elementary school. Interesting combo...
Don, Amy, me & Alvin @ the Beer Garden.
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment