Queens Center Mall

Ranger and I went on another adventure today (two in one week-wow!).
This morning at the late late hour of 830 am Ranger decided he wanted to go out. HOW does a 16 month old make that clear? He first draped his jacket over his head. Then he brought me one croc and one clog, and tried to put my sneakers on his feet. When that didn't work, he climbed into the stroller and pulled his jacket back over his head.
huh.
So, I decided we would check out the Queens Center Mall. I'd been told it was pretty nice and had a good play area. AND everyone said it was easy to get to. It didn't open for shopping til 10 but that suited my needs perfectly.
I packed up our back-pack diaper bag, unfolded the lightweight stroller, and made sure I had directions for both going and coming.

I was asked no less than three times if I needed help and was I sure as Ranger and I made our way down the stairs to the subway. Granted, since it was just going on 9, people didn't want to have to wait for a slow moving mom and her toddler.

When we hopped off at Woodhaven and Queens blvd, and climbed the first set of steps, we saw these wonderfully decorated columns. The phone camera couldn't quite capture it.























On the Google map, the subway exit looked like it popped up in the middle of busy cross section of several BIG TIME ROADS.  So imagine my relief when I came out and saw that with two short crossings, well marked and signaled, I would reach my goal.























The nice thing about going to the mall before the stores open is I can let Ranger walk to his heart's content, and not worry about chasing him through stores. Not that I would bother with the chasing part- he'd just stay in the stroller. We shared some Dunkin Doughnuts and checked out all three levels and the lower level and the food court. It is a nice mall. 


And look! a LEGO store!























All in all we had a lovely adventure and I was more than happy to book it out of there just as the stores were opening (I didn't need the temptations- they have nice stores in there!).

My biggest complaint- and there's nothing to be done about it, is the lack of stroller access in the subways. I *KNOW* better than to put a lot of weight on my right ankle, since the doctor said it was unstable and could malfunction easily. But Ranger isn't up to the stairs, not really. So even though I folded the stroller, I still ended up carrying him. 

Guess who was more worn out from the adventure.