[Composed 9/2/2018]
The title on this post is a bit of a misnomer. While the US Open is going on today, we didn't actually attend any matches, much to Shira's chagrin as we walked by the stadium entrance gates. Instead, we spent time exploring the area around the stadium and then hit the road back to DC.
Our day started by exploring more of Korea Town, which included picking up pastries from yet another bakery. We also grabbed a mango bubble tea. For next year's US Open, I'll be casting my vote to stay in Flushing again, if only for access to copious amounts of fresh bread and tea. I also found my way into a couple of spice shops and gawked at the endless mystery ingredients. This had me wondering: what is fish stomach and why is it so expensive?
We then spent a bit of time wandering Corona Park, which not only hosts the US Open tennis grounds, but was also the location of the 1939 and 1964 Worlds Fair. For years now I've glimpsed various peculiar sights from the heights of Arthur Ashe stadium. Some of these are ruins from the 1964 World's Fair, while others like the Titan II and Atlas D rockets are part of the New York Hall of Science. Today I finally got up close to these oddities.
We found our way to the New York Hall of Science, which we discovered is a schnazzy science museum. As luck would have it, they offer free admission on Sundays between 11 and noon from September through June. We showed up at 11:25am, and walked right in. As science museums go, I was impressed. It's definitely biased towards kids over adults, but there was plenty for us to see. The exhibit dedicated to animation was especially interesting and gave me an appreciation for Gumby I didn't think possible. My favorite exhibit was the Insight Astronomy Photographer of the Year. What can I say, the photos on display are out of this world.
After the museum we made our way to Forrest Hills where we found a street lined with Kosher supermarkets and restaurants. Like the Korean spice shops we'd visited earlier in the day, we again found ourselves in over-crowded shops selling mystery items--though in this case, all the items were Kosher (alas, no fish stomach was on sale here). One highlight was the supermarket selling various pickled things out of buckets. Labels are so overrated.
You've got to love New York: with minimal walking we hit two ethnic areas, historic sites and a science museum, and still didn't check off all the items in the area. Maybe next year I can drag Shira to the zoo, Queens Museum or botanic garden.
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