A couple of months ago I had made my way to the Brooklyn Museum and told myself I shall return soon to visit its neighbor, the Brooklyn Botantical Garden. At the time I first went the sun was just about to set, leaving little time to go in and see everything. This past Saturday, the forecast called for near 60 degree weather, in January, which would have been the perfect weather to go back to the Garden with.
I took the usual subway lines I took last time I visited to the area, only except this time I transfered at an earlier stop which cost me about ten minutes. I had gotten off at the Fulton St. station and was led through a maze of halls, corridors, stairs, escalators, and even a reference directing passengers to the 9/11 Memorial, which popped out of nowhere. There were signs and arrows pointing in every which direction to different train lines. Eventually, I went down a final stairway and there I found the train just about pulling into the station. When I came out from underground the weather was quite pleasant as joggers and children on their bikes were enjoying the surrounding areas of Prospect Park. The entrance to the Botantical Gardens is just yards away from the subway station and I walked up to the ticket booth to pay the $10 entrance fee. There is a children's park right next to this entrance area, and really if someone wanted, they could climb over the short fence from the park and get in for free. The first main attraction when entering the place is a great lawn with its clean and well-maintained grass.
The only downfall of visiting in the winter was that many of the outside plants weren't in bloom, so most of the time it was a case of looking at twigs and sticks. Another issue with the winter was that most of the fountains and water displays were either frozen, or the water had been previously removed to prevent icing. With that in mind, there were still plenty of colorful trees and bushes to provide nice visuals, and with the warm weather some of the remaining water displays offered some interesting surprises. Outside the main greenhouse there was a few man-made pools with plants and goldfish. I was quite shocked the fish were outside in the middle of winter, I'm guessing they live out there all year and simply hypernate when the water freezes. There were still signs of the water being frozen from the chilly week before, but on this day it was almost all liquid and the fish were swimming around fine. I entered the greenhouse, which is probably the main attraction, and didn't need to be concerned about the winter since these rooms are all climate controlled, so they're the same no matter what season it is.
The greenhouse has two floors, the main level, and then a downstairs where the more interesting rooms were set up. The best room of the main level was a Japanese focused display of different types of bonsai plants. The downstairs was seperated into three main rooms, the Tropical Rainforest, Warm Temperature, and the Desert. The rainforest had nice mini-waterfalls, mango trees, cacao(cocoa) leafs, and a banana tree as well. My favorite of the downstairs rooms was clearly the desert room with its funky cactus trees and something called "living stones", rocks that are actually alive like a plant. As I exited the greenhouse, I made my way down the path which led me to a children's section, with the golden arches of a neighboring McDonald's learing in the background. I breezed by that area rather quickly and as I continued to walk I heard an unfamilar bird call. Looking to my left I saw two red birds on a small hill, I knew immediately they must have been cardinals, which don't appear as often as they used to. As I got closer, one of them flew away immediately, but the other staye longer and picked through the dirst. When I had gotten too close, it flew into a bush to hide from me, but its red feather against the green leaves allowed me to find it easily. Again, I drew closer, and this time it flew up to a nearby tree to escape me. As I looked up at the cardinal perched on a tree branch, I noticed other cardinals flying around the area as well, it seems a flock of them must have made their home at the Botanical Garden.
After all that excitement I was just about ready to leave for the day, and had thought I saw everything there was to see at the place. Turns out I was wrong, and this one little path took me to an entire Japanese-themed area which consisted of a pond, statues, caves, and yes, even more goldfish. The goldfish featured in this area were far greater in size and had more reviting colors to gaze upon. One side of the pond featured an outdoor deck with benches that people were sitting on either to converse, or like one gentlemen, to use their laptop in the peaceful surrounds. I was certainly glad I didn't call it a day sooner, otherwise I would've missed out of this section, which was to me the best part of the entire Botantical Garden. The sun began to set, it was getting darker and darker by the minutes, and I was rather confidant I didn't miss anything, so now it was time to leave. Instead of immediately going back home, I thought it would be a nice idea to visit the infamous Junior's Resturant off the Atlantic Avenue station on my way back. It had been a long afternoon of walking around and I didn't get lunch before, so I planned on having an early dinner and a slice of their world famous cheesecake for dessert.
The only problem is that there were alot of changes done to the area around Junior's from since I was there a few years ago. The inside of the Atlantic Ave. station had gone through some rennovations, there was the Atlantic Mall(which was there the last time I went as well), but the biggest change is the basketball arena being built for the soon-to-be-Brooklyn Nets, who are currently the New Jersey Nets. With the landscape looking different with the new arena under construction and the fact it had been a couple of years since I was last in that area, finding Junior's was turing out to be a difficult task. I knew it was within blocks of me, but where and which block? Was it on Atlantic Avenue, Flatbush, Fulton, there's so many famous streets in that area it was tough deciding which one to start with. I don't have internet on my phone, and I wasn't desperate enough to ask someone, so I simply walked around for about twenty minutes until I saw streets and stores that looked familar to me. Soon enough, one block led to another, and I found my way to Junior's on DeKalb Ave.
Since I was by myself I took a seat the counter and had an unfortunate waitress who I couldn't tell was on her first day of the job or just hated her job. She was an Indian woman in her late forties, she was smiling and friendly on one hand, but on another hand she was completely out of touch. I wanted to order a soup, a meal, and then the cheesecake after. As I told her I wanted a matzah ball soup, she walked off without taking the rest of the order or asking if I wanted something to drink, which I found quite odd. I was thinking of getting the steakburger with onions, which I anticipated would be a lean piece of beef with cooked onions on top. When she came back with my soup, I ordered the steakburger with a vanilla egg cream. When the steakburger dish came back to me only minutes later, it looked like a superthick hamburger, and instead of cooked onions, there were two gigantic fried onion rings on the side, in addition to the big french fries that came along. It didn't exactly look like what was described in the menu, so I wasn't sure if she got the order wrong or what the situation was. That being said, I was hungry and it was a burger after all, so I just went at it. Usually I'm able to finish a burger with no qualms, but even though my stomach was empty, this burger was so thick I was only able to accomplish 60% of it, maybe 65%.
The matzah ball soup and sides of onion rings and fries didn't help either, but that was sure one big burger. If I really wanted to I could have persued more of the burger, but I also wanted a slice of cheesecake, so I made sure not to fill my stomach completely at that point. The plan was for a slice of cheesecake and a cup of coffee, but when I told her I was done with the dinner, she took it with done with everything and came out with the check without asking me if I wanted anything else, which is pretty standard for waitressing. Without confusing things further with multiple checks and orders, I decided I would pay this check and then take a slice from their take-out counter in the front. I bought a slice of plain cheesecake, without coffee, and ate it outside the resturant which has benches for people to enjoy their desserts on. I didn't finish the entire slice, but it was well worth getting lost for twenty minutes looking for the place. As I made my way back to the Atltantic Ave. station, I was a little dissapointed I didn't have a cup of coffee to go along with the cheesecake, so I entered a trendy-looking establishment to get myself a cup. The way they make it is they place coffee beans in a special cup, then pour hot water in it, the hot water mixing with the beans pours down as coffee into the cup. By the time I finished the coffee, I had arrived at the station and must have entered through the wrong entrance because I ended up looking at a Long Island Railroad(LIRR) car initially and felt very confused. Luckily, at the end of the tracks of the LIRR was a connecting entrance for the subway and I was on my way back home.
I think from now on, it should be one train for one station, and that's it....
I took the usual subway lines I took last time I visited to the area, only except this time I transfered at an earlier stop which cost me about ten minutes. I had gotten off at the Fulton St. station and was led through a maze of halls, corridors, stairs, escalators, and even a reference directing passengers to the 9/11 Memorial, which popped out of nowhere. There were signs and arrows pointing in every which direction to different train lines. Eventually, I went down a final stairway and there I found the train just about pulling into the station. When I came out from underground the weather was quite pleasant as joggers and children on their bikes were enjoying the surrounding areas of Prospect Park. The entrance to the Botantical Gardens is just yards away from the subway station and I walked up to the ticket booth to pay the $10 entrance fee. There is a children's park right next to this entrance area, and really if someone wanted, they could climb over the short fence from the park and get in for free. The first main attraction when entering the place is a great lawn with its clean and well-maintained grass.
The only downfall of visiting in the winter was that many of the outside plants weren't in bloom, so most of the time it was a case of looking at twigs and sticks. Another issue with the winter was that most of the fountains and water displays were either frozen, or the water had been previously removed to prevent icing. With that in mind, there were still plenty of colorful trees and bushes to provide nice visuals, and with the warm weather some of the remaining water displays offered some interesting surprises. Outside the main greenhouse there was a few man-made pools with plants and goldfish. I was quite shocked the fish were outside in the middle of winter, I'm guessing they live out there all year and simply hypernate when the water freezes. There were still signs of the water being frozen from the chilly week before, but on this day it was almost all liquid and the fish were swimming around fine. I entered the greenhouse, which is probably the main attraction, and didn't need to be concerned about the winter since these rooms are all climate controlled, so they're the same no matter what season it is.
The greenhouse has two floors, the main level, and then a downstairs where the more interesting rooms were set up. The best room of the main level was a Japanese focused display of different types of bonsai plants. The downstairs was seperated into three main rooms, the Tropical Rainforest, Warm Temperature, and the Desert. The rainforest had nice mini-waterfalls, mango trees, cacao(cocoa) leafs, and a banana tree as well. My favorite of the downstairs rooms was clearly the desert room with its funky cactus trees and something called "living stones", rocks that are actually alive like a plant. As I exited the greenhouse, I made my way down the path which led me to a children's section, with the golden arches of a neighboring McDonald's learing in the background. I breezed by that area rather quickly and as I continued to walk I heard an unfamilar bird call. Looking to my left I saw two red birds on a small hill, I knew immediately they must have been cardinals, which don't appear as often as they used to. As I got closer, one of them flew away immediately, but the other staye longer and picked through the dirst. When I had gotten too close, it flew into a bush to hide from me, but its red feather against the green leaves allowed me to find it easily. Again, I drew closer, and this time it flew up to a nearby tree to escape me. As I looked up at the cardinal perched on a tree branch, I noticed other cardinals flying around the area as well, it seems a flock of them must have made their home at the Botanical Garden.
After all that excitement I was just about ready to leave for the day, and had thought I saw everything there was to see at the place. Turns out I was wrong, and this one little path took me to an entire Japanese-themed area which consisted of a pond, statues, caves, and yes, even more goldfish. The goldfish featured in this area were far greater in size and had more reviting colors to gaze upon. One side of the pond featured an outdoor deck with benches that people were sitting on either to converse, or like one gentlemen, to use their laptop in the peaceful surrounds. I was certainly glad I didn't call it a day sooner, otherwise I would've missed out of this section, which was to me the best part of the entire Botantical Garden. The sun began to set, it was getting darker and darker by the minutes, and I was rather confidant I didn't miss anything, so now it was time to leave. Instead of immediately going back home, I thought it would be a nice idea to visit the infamous Junior's Resturant off the Atlantic Avenue station on my way back. It had been a long afternoon of walking around and I didn't get lunch before, so I planned on having an early dinner and a slice of their world famous cheesecake for dessert.
The only problem is that there were alot of changes done to the area around Junior's from since I was there a few years ago. The inside of the Atlantic Ave. station had gone through some rennovations, there was the Atlantic Mall(which was there the last time I went as well), but the biggest change is the basketball arena being built for the soon-to-be-Brooklyn Nets, who are currently the New Jersey Nets. With the landscape looking different with the new arena under construction and the fact it had been a couple of years since I was last in that area, finding Junior's was turing out to be a difficult task. I knew it was within blocks of me, but where and which block? Was it on Atlantic Avenue, Flatbush, Fulton, there's so many famous streets in that area it was tough deciding which one to start with. I don't have internet on my phone, and I wasn't desperate enough to ask someone, so I simply walked around for about twenty minutes until I saw streets and stores that looked familar to me. Soon enough, one block led to another, and I found my way to Junior's on DeKalb Ave.
Since I was by myself I took a seat the counter and had an unfortunate waitress who I couldn't tell was on her first day of the job or just hated her job. She was an Indian woman in her late forties, she was smiling and friendly on one hand, but on another hand she was completely out of touch. I wanted to order a soup, a meal, and then the cheesecake after. As I told her I wanted a matzah ball soup, she walked off without taking the rest of the order or asking if I wanted something to drink, which I found quite odd. I was thinking of getting the steakburger with onions, which I anticipated would be a lean piece of beef with cooked onions on top. When she came back with my soup, I ordered the steakburger with a vanilla egg cream. When the steakburger dish came back to me only minutes later, it looked like a superthick hamburger, and instead of cooked onions, there were two gigantic fried onion rings on the side, in addition to the big french fries that came along. It didn't exactly look like what was described in the menu, so I wasn't sure if she got the order wrong or what the situation was. That being said, I was hungry and it was a burger after all, so I just went at it. Usually I'm able to finish a burger with no qualms, but even though my stomach was empty, this burger was so thick I was only able to accomplish 60% of it, maybe 65%.
The matzah ball soup and sides of onion rings and fries didn't help either, but that was sure one big burger. If I really wanted to I could have persued more of the burger, but I also wanted a slice of cheesecake, so I made sure not to fill my stomach completely at that point. The plan was for a slice of cheesecake and a cup of coffee, but when I told her I was done with the dinner, she took it with done with everything and came out with the check without asking me if I wanted anything else, which is pretty standard for waitressing. Without confusing things further with multiple checks and orders, I decided I would pay this check and then take a slice from their take-out counter in the front. I bought a slice of plain cheesecake, without coffee, and ate it outside the resturant which has benches for people to enjoy their desserts on. I didn't finish the entire slice, but it was well worth getting lost for twenty minutes looking for the place. As I made my way back to the Atltantic Ave. station, I was a little dissapointed I didn't have a cup of coffee to go along with the cheesecake, so I entered a trendy-looking establishment to get myself a cup. The way they make it is they place coffee beans in a special cup, then pour hot water in it, the hot water mixing with the beans pours down as coffee into the cup. By the time I finished the coffee, I had arrived at the station and must have entered through the wrong entrance because I ended up looking at a Long Island Railroad(LIRR) car initially and felt very confused. Luckily, at the end of the tracks of the LIRR was a connecting entrance for the subway and I was on my way back home.
I think from now on, it should be one train for one station, and that's it....
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