Astorian Weekend Edition, 16.07.09

Looks like another nice weekend in Astoria. Thursday evening brings plenty of fun things to do in town, from a free wine tasting, to a celebration of pampering, to Green Drinks in LIC, to an evening of style shopping. It's my birthday that day, so I'll be celebrating as well.

This weekend head over to the Sculpture Center (44-19 Purves Street) on Saturday to get your fill of social, cultural, and artistic discussion. Remember that nearby you'll find Dutch Kills Bar (27-24 Jackson Avenue), so head over there to continue the discussion over a cocktail.

And don't forget Astoria's own Musical Saw Festival on the 18th at Trinity Church (31-18 37th Street)

Summer weekends are all about relaxing, so LIC's newly expanded Gantry State Park (behind 47-20 Center Blvd) could be perfect on Sunday for a relaxing afternoon of lazing around. A swim could be fun, too. Or spend the time over on 30th Ave at Ovelia (34-01 30th Ave) sitting outside with a frappe and friends. Il Bambino's new outdoor patio (34-08 31st Ave) is newly open, too.

Enjoy your weekend, whatever you do!

Grab Your Swimsuits!

("and your flippy floppies!")

It has come to my attention that the city's outdoor public pools open on Saturday the 27th. That includes ginormous Astoria Pool at Astoria Park. If you haven't seen it, let me tell you: it's big. Like, 4 Olympic sized pools set next to each other big. From Parks:

All 54 Parks outdoor pools have closed for the season and will reopen on June 27, 2009. Indoor pools remain open year-round. General hours of operation are 11:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m., and 4:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. Call individual pools for more specific information.

Astoria Pool's number is (718) 626-8620. Oh, and here are the dimensions: 330' x 165' x 4'. Hugenormous. See:



EDIT: Thanks to GreenShores, this additional info has come to my attention:

General swim hours are 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. daily. Adult Lap Swim begins on July 7th and runs on weekdays 7-8:30 a.m. & 7-8:30 p.m. Senior Splash begins on July 7th and runs Monday/Wednesday/Friday 10 a.m. -1 p.m. Registration for Children’s Learn to Swim (ages 18 months to 14 years) is on July 7th. All programs are free. For more information, www.nycparks.org or (718) 760-6969, ext. 0

Photo credit: (cc) Victoria Belanger via a Creative Commons License.