Tag Archives: #LIC_Qns

Phew

This was a long walk

Sights and sites and even some plaques that might be cited: an arrival on Roosevelt Island

The history is fascinating. I suggest you look it up. It was Hog Island [yes, those kind of hogs]; it was Blackwell Island and before those Minnehanonck. It was also Welfare Island on which there were an asylum, a smallpox hospital and penitentiaries.

In 1973, it was renamed for FDR. Now, a park built in his memory occupies the southern tip. Nicely designed and lushly landscaped it is called The Four Freedoms Park after a January 1941 speech.

You catch waterside views of Manhattan & Queens on RI. The ivy covered ruin is the Smallpox Hospital [circa 1856-75]. The grounds of Four Freedoms Park are lush with springtime. Families of geese are on the slopes.

I caught the Queens bound Q102 on Roosevelt Island and rode all the way to Jackson Av at Queens Plaza. I walked the hefty distance til I reached 1040, the NY Irish Center. My friends LM and her hubs were joining me for what would prove a genuine treat: an Irish reels and jig mixed with Brazilian Samba.

Queens didn’t look this tall when I was a kid living in the borough. I went from Qns Plz to just past the Pulaski. Shout out to the nice baristas at SweetLeaf Coffee at both ends of my journey. Good brew, too.