NYC Weekend Excursions - Marine Park, Jamaica Bay, AMNH & Red Hook
2020 was a long winter. Spring is finally here. Hope everything will get better soon in 2021.
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itinerary
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Day 1 Itinerary
Places visited: Marine Park Salt Marsh Nature Trail - Lenape Playground - Saigon Grill & Bar
Marine Park Salt Marsh Nature Trail
A short and easy trail with nice water view. But not much to see on the trail.
Lenape Playground
Saigon Grill & Bar
Get the grilled pork chop dish! It’s cooked to perfect tenderness and juiciness. The portion is so big that it can easily feed two.
Day 2 Itinerary
Places visited: Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge - American Museum of Natural History - Ootoya - Greenwich Village
Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge
A bird lover’s heaven! We are not but we still appreciated the natural beauty and the large swan/bird population in the reserve. It is one of the largest bird habitats in the northeastern United States. We saw a few small nice beaches in the reserve but all of them are off limits to protect the ecosystem.
American Museum of Natural History
The museum has an impressive collection of dinosaur fossils. If you are tight on time, skip the first 3 floors and head directly to the 4th floor for the fossils. It was fascinating to learn so many different species of dinosaurs roamed on earth for 160 million years and then went completely extinct 60-70 million years ago.
Ootoya - Greenwich Village
A disappointing dinner ... used to be one of my favorite low-key but good-food Japanese restaurants in NYC. The quality of their dinner sets have gone down so much yet prices have gone up a lot.
Day 3 Itinerary
Places visited: Pier 44 Waterfront Garden - The Red Hook Winery - Brooklyn Crab - Sunny's - Santo Brúklin
Pier 44 Waterfront Garden
The Red Hook Winery
Stumbled upon this waterfront wine tasting place. Advanced online reservation is required for the weekend as this place gets booked up easily when the weather gets nicer.
Brooklyn Crab
Sunny's
Live music performance
Santo Brúklin
Highly recommend this Brazilian restaurant with a cute backyard ... will come back to try their brunch another time.