Blogs from Queens, New York, New York, United States, North America

We were meeting my cousin Joan and her daughter Jen in Long Island City, so we started out early and headed in that direction. First, the Isamu Noguchi Museum and Sculpture Garden is a block from the river. Noguchi was a sculptor, landscape architect, and theatrical set designer who lived and worked in LIC. He created the Red Cube in the Financial District, and the Sunken Fountain at Chase Plaza, among other public art. The Noguchi Table (1948), with its distinctive yin-yang design, is still in production today. He also designed stage sets for Martha Graham, George Ballanchine, and others. Noguchi opened his museum in LIC in 1985 as the culmination of his commitment to public art, using a 60-foot tree-of-heaven (ailanthus altissima) as a focal point. When the tree started to die, threatening to fall ... read more

Today Gracie took herself to the Metropolitan Museum of Art and, as a die-hard Beatles fan, to Strawberry Fields. I stayed close to the apartment and rested my weary back. Gracie took all the shots you see on today’s blog entry. Captions and explanations are hers. There are a couple of laundromats nearby, so I tossed the clothes into a rolling bag and made my way there. While waiting for the process to finish, I waited outside on a chair and watched the neighborhood characters do their Astoria thang. A few families walked by. Stroller babies either ignored me as if they were my own teenagers, or smiled brightly, secure in the knowledge that they’d get attention—they can always spot a sucker. A large man across the street happily shouted greetings to delivery truck drivers as ... read more

Today was beautiful, warm but breezy, perfect for walking. Gracie and I started by taking the Broadway bus to the ell and the N train to the end at Ditmars. We had lunch at Mike's: a typical classic Greek diner with those 10-page menus. We had spanakopita and moussaka. Both were okay. The spanakopita filling was very good, the salad was excellent, but the phyllo dough was tough, probably reheated in a microwave or something. We traveled west to Immaculate Conception Church where a wedding was to begin shortly. I lit candles for Antoinette's mother and Noah's dad Joe, which is no fun at all any more because now they're electric, so you just hit a little switch to light it. No real fire, and no more containers of sand to plunge the match into. We ... read more

We arrived at Newark Intl Airport after a pleasant day in the air, and found a bus that took us to Port Authority. That 16-mile trip took longer than driving from Portland to Seattle, because the Holland Tunnel was closed and all traffic was rerouted through the Lincoln. We went so slowly through Wehauken that I think I could write a travel article about it. At Port Authority, a cabbie gave us a good price to take us to our home for the next two weeks, a basement apartment in Astoria we found through airbnb.com. Our host was warm and welcoming. He and his wife provided all the amenities to make this a comfortable place: good beds, a fridge and microwave, storage space for our stuff, and local menus and maps. They also have a beautiful, ... read more

Okay. On Tuesday Feb 14, 2012 at 9:25pm, I flew out of Seattle, WA to New York, NY. Landed at 5:03am. Here is a rundown of the trip. 2/15: Landed at JFK Airport at 5:03am. Got my suitcase from Bagge. This was my first time flying into JFK and I think I will try to fly here every time. Getting to my hotel was a breeze. Just took the Air-Train from JFK to Jamaica Station, then hopped on the "E" Train to Queen's Plaza. Walk over the Queensborough Bridge and walk into the hotel. I stayed at the Days Inn on Queens Blvd. I got to the hotel way early and I was hoping that they would have a room available. The front desk man said that he had just come on and had not had ... read more

Ok, now I'm writing this for the second time, grrrrr! Anyway, we're now about a week and a half from takeoff and are in pretty good shape. We just discovered that Qantas limits the weight of carry-ons to 15 lbs. That means we'll have to check our roller bags and hope they show up in Queenstown like they should. Connie got her new iPhone which should work in NZ and Australia. The next big things are getting the house closed up and the actual packing.... read more