I think that yesterday was one of the "top ten" weather days of the year. (i have this thing where I try to rate the weather...the less humid the better.) There wasn't a cloud in the sky and it was nice and dry (yay humidity is gone! finally!). Hot in the sun, cool in the shade. Somehow we managed to visit Flushing for lunch and then took a bike ride from Brooklyn halfway up the West Side.
Flushing was so lively, so many shops and people and dogs and babies. It seemed like you could buy just about everything and anything. Well mostly everything had to do with food, salons and cellphones actually. The fruits and vegetables were amazingly fresh and CHEAP! My grandmother told me that the population is something like 80% Chinese. In fact there were very few signs that had any english on them. I guess you just have to point and nod and gesture and/or hope that the shopkeeper speaks the same dialect as you (and forgives the mangled american accent). It definitely feels like it's a city unto itself - even with its own transportation system (there are cheap shuttle buses that run between Chinatown in Manhattan and Flushing on a very regular basis - i think that's how Fung Wah got its start!).
Then, since it was ridiculously beautiful out, we took our bikes out for a spin over the Brooklyn Bridge and up the Greenway that runs next to the Hudson River. It was probably just as lively as Flushing, but with a very different crowd. Tons of stuff going on, from a trapeze school to a skatepark to ping pong to cheerleading to sunbathing to dog runs. It was crazy. I think that everyone was so relieved that you could finally go outside without suffocating. and is it me, or are there more small yippy dogs in this city than children?
wait! since when were you born in Flushing??
Posted by: Tracie at August 31, 2004 05:54 PM