World's Fair Festival: Part 1
On Sunday my friends and I went to Flushing-Meadows Corona Park for the 50th Anniversary World's Fair Festival. I had gone back in April for the actual anniversary of opening day, but this was an actual NY Parks-sanctioned festival so there was a lot more going on. The park was more crowded than I had ever seen it, and although I prefer my desolate January visits, it was nice to see so many people interested in the World's Fair sites.
Sunday was definitely one of those "I can't believe how wonderful my life is" magic New York days, beginning with the fact that the fountains around the Unisphere were turned on. I have been dreaming of the day that I would finally see them working, yet actually seeing them in person somehow managed to exceed my expectations. The Unisphere itself is always impressive, but the fountains take it to a whole different level. A few hours after we arrived, the fountains were actually turned off again— I read that they were blowing on people — and I'm sad that we didn't get to enjoy them for longer, but ecstatic that we saw them at all.
Shortly after arriving we also got to tour the New York State Pavilion and I took so many photos that it warrants its own post entirely. There were walking tours, memorabilia tents and a lot of food vendors — I was excited for the Belgian waffles, but they turned out to be from the Wafels and Dinges trucks, which are all over the city so it wasn't really worth standing in the insanely long line. Speaking of long lines, we did wait more than an hour for a completely average and ridiculously expensive pulled pork sandwich, which is probably as close to an authentic World's Fair experience as we'll ever get.
There were classic cars on display, including a Batmobile — complete with the very awesome BatPhone — a show with replica World's Fair structures made from Legos, and even a vintage Greyhound cart that was zipping around the grounds. We all agreed that they should make this a yearly event and I don't think I'll ever get sick of seeing the Unisphere fountains — I hope I get to catch them on periodically for at least another 50 years.