Bis repetita placent. Some places we visit more often than others, even if only because the tide has pulled us there. Dead Horse Bay tickles a few of our instincts, being a foraging lucky spot surrounded by tidal flats and overflown by JFK giants, much quieter than its Jamaica Bay cousin Broad Channel, and with the odd resurgence of half-a-century old glass and metal artifacts as a bonus or a curse depending on one's point of view... Signs of the past When garbage w...

Venturing south from Cobble Hill, we soon reach another Brooklyn neighborhood that is changing furiously, probably not for the best. But it has until now retained enough strangeness, oddity, stunning views and calm isolation to remain an attractive walking destination. This is a glimpse of what one sees in Red Hook, whether colorful or bleached by ocean fog. Verrazano-Narrows Bridge in thick fog The Water taxi enroute to... Ikea Ice cream truck hang out The ...

As today we explored the vast Van Cortland Park in the Bronx, I was reminded of our last Pelham Bay outing and quite a few signs of life. Pelham Bay is just about as far as we can reach on public transit without hopping on a train proper and leaving the Five Boroughs behind. Getting there requires a long ride to the very end of the 6 subway line and a slingshot on the Bx29 bus towards City Island. But once dropped off the bus in the middle of nowhere, the rewards are...

Walking back from a very colorful lunch in a small Greek restaurant in Queens recently, we ventured further east to the river which we followed for a while to the John Robert F. Kennedy Bridge. Three more bridges remained above us to the Long Island Sound and six more separated us from the ocean to the south. Robert F. Kennedy Bridge Robert F. Kennedy Bridge The other bridge Back on the subway, which runs above ground this far north

I'd initially wanted to go to Pelham Bay but a late start forced me to reconsider. Scrambling for options, I opted for a ride to the Flushing Meadows-Corona Park, a public space in Queens I had never been to and which had long ago hosted two World's Fairs. It was a mistake. The subway ride on a construction-crippled grid took forever with two transfers and a bus. I arrived late and was forced to shorten my visit. So I speed-walked through a long alley, past a dried up f...