My Summer Solstice Adventure: Morning

Roar! After breakfast I decided to ride north through Queens to see what I could find.

It had turned into a beautiful morning and I thought it would be nice to enjoy the day the way I used to back in the Victorian era. Luckily I was passing by Mt. Zion cemetery so I decided to take a nice stroll through the cemetery.

Back when the cemeteries were first established in the 19th century there was still a lot of open green space to enjoy. Since this was before public parks, people used to come to the cemeteries for picnics. However, unlike in the 19th century, things are now a bit more crowded. Roar!

Despite the lack of open space, all the rocks and English ivy growing everywhere were making a great habitat for some of my relatives!

Here I am relaxing on a bench in one of the few open areas left in Mt. Zion cemetery. Behind me you can see the Sanitation Department's waste processing center. It looks so ominous looming over the cemetery like that! Roar!

After my stroll through the cemetery I decided it might be fun to do some more of the key to city locations so I rode on over to Jackson Heights.

Roar! Here I am outside the office of New York City council member Daniel Dromm.

Turns out my key opens the display case with this flag in it. I wonder what will be behind the flag?

Why, it looks like a bunch of people have been leaving messages here! Maybe I'll put up a sticker... Roar! Get along little doggy, Sheriff T-Rex is town! 

Next, I rode east until I hit the river and one of my favorite parks in the city...

Roar! I just love the Socrates Sculpture Park. There are a bunch of new pieces on display since I was last here in the fall. This piece is called "Facade." One side is covered in beautiful images of nature and the other side with scenes of urban decay. If you ask me it all seems a bit heavy clawed.

Roar! I pushed this tree stump over only to find it had a bunch of tubes and wires for roots?! I wonder what these artists are going for? 

This was a cool piece where the boat and everything on it was found in Jamaica Bay. The sculpture was called "Deadhorse." It looks like this artist has a good sense of humor about what they are doing. Roar! 

Visiting the park was really fun. There are always so many great events happening. There was even going to be a concert later in the day. It was park of Make Music New York. Turns out there were concerts happening all over the city. Maybe I'll go and see one later in the day. 

Next, I headed up to northern Astoria to check out Build it Green, a really cool place that helps recycle more "unorthodox" material in order to held keep New York City my favorite color!

Wow! Look at some of the crazy stuff they have here. I could even start my very own Diner. I'll call it T-Rex's T-Ruck Stop! Maybe they'll even film a movie there! Roar!

Wow! I can even get my skin done here! Maybe I'll finally go for that bluer shade of green I was thinking about last solstice.

Woah! They even have this sweet, sweet mantle! It sure would be cool to have this in my place.

Check out this awesome sculpture! Maybe I should have brought Giraffe along with me today. She would have loved this! 

Yikes! There were even a number of creepy things at Build it Green like a bunch of coffins and even this weird mummified bear that used to be in the Smithsonian. I wonder how it ended up here? Roar!

It sure was a fun exploring Queens all morning. It's such a great borough and there is always so much to explore. I wonder what the Bronx will have to offer? Roar!

My Summer Solstice Adventure: Dawn

Roar! Yesterday was the summer solstice and, like the winter solstice, I decided to spend the longest day of the year outside exploring the city. 

I started the day by watching the sun rise on my roof. It was so pretty! It's not everyday you get to see a sunrise like this. Roar!

Here you can see the light changing on the Manhattan skyline and the sun reflecting off the buildings. What a beautiful sight!

Next, I stepped outside to have an early morning bike ride through my neighborhood of Bushwick. It turned out the paperboy was on his way down the street. He was so surprised to see a T-Rex, I hope he doesn't call it quits! Roar!

After riding through Bushwick, I headed down Grand Street to Rust Street and cut over along the Queens border to the site where Furman's Island used to be. Here I am looking across the tracks to what used to be the site of one of the worst ecological disasters of the 19th century.

Furman's Island was originally a dumping ground for all the human waste from the city. Gross! Then Peter Cooper opened his glue factory on the island so it was full of horse carcasses waiting to be boiled down into glue. Double gross! Here I am looking out over Maspeth Creek, an offshoot of Newtown Creek, that used to go all the way around Furman's Island.

Now the area that used to be Furman's Island is full of food distribution warehouses including the likes of Freihofer's Cookies, Apple and Eve (their slogan is really amusing, roar), and Grandpa's Original Yogurt Muffins! Yum!

The Department of Sanitation now has a garage here which I find really amusing. Roar!

Here I am looking out over what's left of the old wooden plank bridge that crossed Newtown Creek and connected Brooklyn with Furman's Island. 

The water around the island is still really polluted! Once, when the mayor of Brooklyn came with an inspection committee to Furman's Island, they had to quit when they weren't even half done because the smell was so bad. 

Next, I headed back across the tracks to continue on my way. Only this time a train was coming. Choo! Choo!

After seeing all those food distribution warehouses I was feeling a bit hungry. Luckily, across the street from the train tracks was the Clifton Diner. This is the very same diner they filmed parts of the movie Goodfellas in! I sure hope no one asks me to "whack" anyone!

Roar! I was so hungry I forgot to take pictures of the food before I ate it all! I had French toast with bacon, sausage, pickles, and coleslaw! It was so nice to have a big meal before I continued with my day.

Visiting T-Rinity Church!

Roar! This morning I rode into Manhattan to visit Trinity Church and see Alexander Hamilton's grave. I'm not worried about running into Hamilton's ghost because he's still off haunting the Burr family but, hopefully, I won't run into Charles BOOS while I'm in the graveyard! That would be so scary!

Here I am outside Trinity Church. It sure is a cool building!The original church was built in 1696 and the pirate, Captain Kidd, even lent the block and tackle from his ship to aid in the construction. What a nice guy!

Right inside the churchyard is the Trinity Root, a sculpture made out of the root of a giant sycamore that fell during the attack on the World Trade Center on September 11th, 2001.

My key was supposed to open a padlock that let me into the churchyard but the gate was already open. I guess it's cool that I can lock the gate up if I want to but it kind of takes the excitement out of the location when anyone can walk into the churchyard.

Here I am at Alexander Hamilton's Grave.He was one of America's Founding Fathers and the first Secretary of the Treasury. He was also responsible for founding the U.S. Mint.  He also had a few more unsavory business deals like using the money he raised  for the Manhattan Water Company to set up the first Bank of New York.

I guess my key won't open every gate in the churchyard. Roar...

After leaving Trinity Church I headed further downtown to Battery Park where there was a huge commotion going on.

It turned out today was the Red Bull Air Race and there were stunt planes doing death-defying tricks above the harbor.

Here I am with one of the nice Red Bull girls. She sure was having a fun time at the Air Race!

 It was really hard to get a photo of the planes with my camera but I managed to snap this one here.

Today sure was a fun day! The churchyard was nice and it was cool to see the air race. Maybe next year I'll enter my own plane. It sure would be fun to be a pilot! Roar!

 

A Trip to Cabinet Magazine!

Roar! This afternoon I decided to ride over to Gowanus and check out Cabinet Magazine, another one of the Key to the City destinations.

After riding down Union Street I came to the corner of Nevins where the office for Cabinet Magazine is. I'm not even going to begin to describe what type of magazine Cabinet is, just read their mission statement to find out. Roar! 

They have this strange box installed in a window in the alleyway next to the office. I can't imagine what will be inside. Probably something strange, I am in Gowanus after all!

Why, look at that, nothing is actually in the box. However, the back is a large speaker that was playing the song Forever Blowing Bubbles! What a great song. Roar!

I guess I'd better look up.

Well look at that! There is a bubble machine up in the corner of the window that starts blowing bubbles when you open the box. I hope those bubbles are non-toxic! Roar!

After leaving Cabinet Magazine I continued down Union Street to check out Gowanus Canal. Like Newtown creek, it's also an EPA Superfund site. The canal has had countless environmental problems through out its history, from being a dumping place for human waste to the run off site for industrial contaminates. According to the EPA the pollution in the canal is so bad the water is incapable of supporting life.

Wow, look at that water down there. It sure is one eerie canal! Roar!

There was even a NYC Condom wrapper floating in the canal. I'm glad to know someone out there is being safe! Roar!

Exploring Eastern Queens part 2: Let them eat Tortillas!

Roar! After my adventure in Flushing I headed back down Roosevelt Ave to Corona to visit the Tortilleria Nixtamal, one of the Key to the City locations.

Here I am outside the Tortilleria. It looks like a pretty neat place! I can't want to see what waits for me inside.

The owner of the Tortilleria took me to a door in the back.

Ok... Let's see what is behind it!

This is getting a little weird now. I've got to go down into the Basement.

Oh, it's the kitchen where they make all the tortillas, it looks like I'm going to get to see how they make them first claw.

The owner told us about how they make the tortillas - apparently they still grind the corn fresh each day. Most places haven't made tortillas like this since the 30's when they industrialized the production of Masa in Mexico.

To make their tortillas, first the Tortilleria Nixtamal buys whole white corn--

--and soaks it in quicklime over night--

 --then grinds the whole kernels into a meal. 

Next, they press all the tortillas by hand. Here they let me press my own by claw. Roar! 

Finally they grill each tortilla. Oh my, it smells so good!

ROAR! THIS IS THE BEST TORTILLA I HAVE EVER EATEN! 

After that amazing tortilla I went back upstairs to order some other food! First I got this amazing chile relleno. Instead of a poblano it was a large jalopeno stuffed with tuna, roasted, then served cold in a tortilla with crema on top. YUM!

Next, I tried the sausage and pepper tamale. The neighborhood of Corona where the Tortilleria is located is an old Italian neighborhood and this was their tribute to their Italian neighbors. It was delicious!

Today was really fun, the Tortilleria was great and being able to see how they make the tortillas was a rare treat. It sure is great to have the Key to the City.