Brooklyn, Land of my Birth

Brooklyn, originally a mighty city by herself, and now NYC's most populous borough, is home to many riches. Taken away at age three by my sun-seeking parents to live in Los Angeles, I later found my way back to my homeland. Remember the Brooklyn Museum? Take the 2 or 3 subway to the Brooklyn Museum stop (Eastern Parkway), and look for the beautiful antique mosaics.

Proceed to the Museum with its newish Statue of Liberty collar (don't miss the dancing fountains)

and go inside. Target Saturday nights are free and the rest of the time, it's a modest $8 donation for seniors 62+. Inside you will find a glorious permanent collection plus a movable feast of Museum objects you wouldn't think had anything to do with each other but miraculously do when you see them together. Don't neglect this masterpiece of a museum.

Right next to the Museum are the Brooklyn Botanical Gardens, complete with lily ponds, Japanese garden, conservatories and fountains. You can eat light food outside under canopies at the cafe and meander along the paths.Admission is free with your Museum ticket.

Not far away at 95 Prospect Park West, is Prospect Park, "the masterpiece of famed landscape architects Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux, who also designed Central Park, featuring Brooklyn’s only forest, the nation’s first urban Audubon Center and the Prospect Park Zoo."

(twi-ny.com)


The Prospect Park Zoo and the New York Aquarium, together with the zoos in the other four boroughs, are all part of the Wildlife Conservation Society, reflecting the advance in philosophy from showing off exotic animals to conserving them. Become a member and save wildlife around the world.

If you go to the Aquarium, on Surf Avenue and West 8th Street, the oldest in the US, you can see Mitik, the baby walrus rescued in Alaska, and now a transplanted Brooklynite. There's plenty to see at the Aquarium, which continues to recover from Hurricane Sandy, and admission has been reduced to $9.95 during the rebuild. Friday afternoons is pay-what-you-wish.

(animalnewyork.com)

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#thingstodoinbrooklyn
#mitik