Ozone Park, Queens —

I’ll begin where I left off, back underneath the A Train on Liberty Avenue. As I said in my previous post, life in Queens is a bustling, multicultural experience and usually it is as noisy as it is diverse. It is the classic urban symphony of sirens, trucks, car horns and boom boxes. For most of the year we are pampered by the serenity of the Italian countryside so when we started spending time here, finding a corner of quiet repose was a priority. Happily, a 15 minute walk from the corner above leads us here . . . . .

Forest Park is 538 acres of respite from the bustle around us. Like its more famous neighbor, Central Park, it was designed by Fredrick Law Olmsted and the masterstroke of his his design was to leave 20% of the area virtually untouched. Hence it lives up to its name and offers miles of country paths in the heart of the city. In Autumn, it is easy to imagine yourself in Vermont. Only the hum of the Jackie Robinson Parkway and the occasional roar of a 747 on final approach to JFK keep us mentally in place here in NYC.

I’ll finish with a couple of photos of how we spend our time here. We are off to Chiavenna next Tuesday but before that, we hope to sneak over to Chinatown in Flushing for some authentic Dim Sum. We’ll keep you posted.