The Intrepid

The Intrepid Museum Website

On Thursday the Big Apple Greeters had a field trip to the Intrepid Museum.

I am pretty sure I had been there before.  But I was probably worried the whole time about who would push who into the Hudson.

Not a problem with the Big Apple Greeters.  

We are a very well behaved group.

Ron Guggenheim took us around.  The tour took a little over an hour and a half and Ron filled us in on much of the history around the museum and everything to do with the re-purposed airplane carrier. 

But there is much more to see, including the Enterprise, the prototype for the Space Shuttle, a nuclear submarine, the Concorde airplane and in interactive experience  area.

The Flight Deck of the Intrepid

World War II era planes on display

What to do on a rainy day

From walking off the Big apple

What to do on a rainy day

http://www.walkingoffthebigapple.com/2008/11/rainy-day-new-york-places-to-go-in-city.html

Williamsburg Brooklyn

Maybe not technically Williamsburg, but the view from the DOE

Street Murals off Bedford Avenue

Here's a suggested walking tour

http://www.everytrail.com/guide/williamsburg-nyc-walking-tour/map

and  an audio tour
http://www.southsidewalk.com/

Flushing Meadows -weird and interesting links

Old blog entry about some guy who climbed the NY State Towers

Again- out of date since Shea Stadium is mentioned- but always chock full of interesting stuff


WNYC has some things to say

Commercial tour- lots of pictures

http://www.16miles.com/2010/08/worlds-fair-censorship-and-bizarre.html

Subway Art

I asked the cop where the Lichtenstein Mural is in Times Square.

He had no idea what I was talking about.  But when I showed him the picture, he remembered it and sent me in the right direction.


That's the thing about subway art.  Its there.  People notice it.  But they don't actually know they're seeing art.

I am fascinated by art in the subways. Here are a few links

A great video with interviews with the artists -some quite renown

A subway guide- a list of some of the better known pieces of art.

Or download the app Meridian for either Iphones or Androids for a really thorough collection of information on subway art including podcasts, directions and station by station explanations.

A Brooklyn Visit-Brooklyn Heights and the NYC Transit Museum

Visit with the Kerr family from Brisbane Australia.

What do you do when the family wants to visit Brooklyn and its 60 degrees and raining in New York City?

Go to the Transit Museum.

Took the 5 train from Grand Central to Borough Hall, the first stop in Brooklyn and  followed the cell phone directions to the base of my former life.  110 Livingston Street.  Once that was the home of the venerable Board of Education of the City of New York. It still says so on the facade.  Now like so much of Brooklyn, its high priced condos.

We all enjoyed the museum, filled with explanations of the making of the subway system, as well as old trains, trolleys and buses to crawl in and out of.  

Then an aborted attempt to find a place to eat, then I followed the cell phone to   My Little Pizzeria, 114 Court Street. 

Then we followed the cell phone down, through Brooklyn Heights, and to the Brooklyn Bridge where it began to pour heavy, so it was time to follow the cell phone to the nearest subway.

I said I knew Queens,  But the cell phone seems to know Brooklyn well enough.

Botanical Gardens, the Bronx

There comes a time, on every faraway trip, where I get homesick.  I miss American food, I miss American English and I miss the subway system I understand.   So often, I find myself in the ubiquitous Subway Sandwich shop.  And although the wallpaper shows an inaccurate  map of the subway system  this is pictured-the glass, greenhouse at the Bronx Botanical Gardens

Marissa in the park

Late fall crab apples

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And you thought the Bronx River was just the name of a highway!