We spent two days looking at autumn foliage and eating our way through Flushing.

If you’re stumbling upon this blog for the first time, welcome! I have a lot of regular readers that I know about and cherish from the bottom of my heart, but for those who are just stopping by for the first time: my name is Ashley. I work on this blog as a little outlet from my job and life as a writer, which is awesome, but I used to work professionally as a film critic and wanted a space to keep going with that practice.

I tend to write about lifestyle, movies, books, and television. Today’s blog post is in the travel category, as the theme of fall 2025 for me has been self-care and learning how to adjust to my new job. Back in the summer, before I started my new job, my sister booked a hotel for my mother as a gift.

My mother wanted to go to Flushing because she’s heard so much about it from me, then my other sister joined us for the ride. In hindsight, traveling two weekends in a row probably wasn’t the best for my sanity. The week prior I had booked a hotel in Washington D.C. and roamed around that city for a while, then I went straight back to work, and then headed off to New York City the following weekend.

As someone who went to college in New York City, before the COVID-19 pandemic disrupted it and I was sent home, never to return again as a resident, then as someone who worked in the city and did film festival coverage out of there as a film critic, I’ve spent an obscene amount of time going back and forth between Maryland and New York. The other day I started calculating how much time I’ve spent on buses and trains, but then stopped because I got too depressed.

This was another bus trip again. I do remember the Megabus days (fun fact: I was once assaulted on a Megabus and the driver did absolutely nothing and said I was lying) and when they dropped you off in the middle of nowhere and exposed to the elements. Port Authority isn’t pretty, but I do like access to a bathroom and shelter from the rain.

Anyways, we all boarded an 8 AM bus to New York and showed up ready to party for the next two days.

Let’s get into what we did there!

Day One: Joe’s Pizza, Bryant Park Winter Village, Central Park, Nan Xiang Xiao Long Bao (Flushing), Mango Mango

We arrived in New York City just shy of 11:30 AM, and after stopping in the bathroom, we went to our first stop of the day: Joe’s Pizza. I didn’t have the hindsight to order the pizza ahead of time, so we waited in line for about twenty-five minutes, then had to wait an additional twenty minutes for a whole pie. It cost more to get individual slices, so the whole pie became the more economic option.

We took our pizza to a public park just short of Bryant Park, then devoured two slices each. I never had Joe’s Pizza before, but thought it was pretty decent. I don’t think I would go out of my way to get it again, but if I were in the area and the line was short then I would happily grab a slice or two.

Once we ate all of our pizza, we went over to the Bryant Park Winter Village. I thought it was wild that this opened at the beginning of November, but everyone else apparently knew that fact too because it was extremely crowded. Every year I end up here and swear I’m never coming back because of how crowded and overpriced it is.

Thirty minutes of looking at the shops and contemplating whether to buy things or not, we ended up leaving. We stopped at Blue Bottle to pick up some beans for my sister’s boyfriend, then got coffees at Gregory’s because I wanted to try the Black Forest Latte special they had going on. I like it, but it was too much sugar for a normal day.

Our next goal was Central Park, so we walked up Fifth Avenue, stopping at Rockefeller Center and the church nearby. Central Park was also insanely crowded—I have never seen so many people in that park at once after summer. The autumn foliage was absolutely gorgeous though and made the walk through the crowds worth it.

Once we hit the Bethesda Terrace we made our way out of the park and through the Upper East Side to get to the 6 train. From there, we transferred to the 7 and rode to Mets-Willet Point, which was the last stop because at Flushing they were replacing the tracks on the weekends.

We got on the shuttle bus, which was packed and an adventure in itself. After that we got into our hotel, the Ramada, and then headed out to dinner at Nan Xiang Xiao Long Bao. We waited thirty minutes before our table of four was seated, then we ordered you tiao, chicken soup dumplings, variety soup dumplings, regular xiao long bao, and two yaki udons with different meats. All of it was really good—I do prefer Shanghai You Garden’s dumplings though.

Our final stop for the night was Mango Mango. I have been here many times in my life, but my sister really wanted to come. My mother ordered a sundae, I got the fresh fruit sago with coconut milk (it’s my go to order there!), and my sister got hte mango pancakes. Everything was all really good, and when we got back to the hotel I passed out immediately because I was so full.

Day Two: Queens Botanical Garden, Shopping at Skyview, Tangram Mall

We woke up at 7 AM on our second day of this trip, then headed down to the breakfast buffet once everyone got dressed and ready to go. I was pleasantly surprised to see fried rice and congee on the menu at this breakfast, so I grabbed some because I knew I wasn’t really going to see this ever again at an American style hotel.

After we ate we packed up our backpacks and headed out for the day. Main Street was just waking up, with the fruit vendors set up and men selling zongzi happily showcasing their wares for the day. We ducked inside a flower shop with a man selling tofu at the front (I recognized him from social media!), cooed at the cute bamboo decor, then headed to the Queens Botanical Garden.

It’s free on Sundays this time of the year, and it was so cute to see all of the Chinese grandmas practicing their dance moves and fan dancing together. The entire garden isn’t that big, so we only spent about two hours here with meditation time. It was very pretty though to see, especially considering the leaves were falling and all the fall foliage enhanced its natural beauty.

After that we walked to Skyview, as my sister wanted to go to UNIQLO. I bought two pairs of culottes to replace my trousers that were falling apart, then we headed to Tangram Mall. There, we walked around and window shopped at the stores, grabbed some sweets at 85 Degrees, then headed up to the food court to get something to eat. I got noodles and skewers from the Xinjiang restaurant along with my mother. I thought it was a tad overpriced for Flushing, especially considering the quality was so-so.

From Tangram we picked up some boba at HeyTea, walked to Mets-Willett Point, then headed to Port Authority Bus Terminal. Our adventure in New York was over, but I was happy. We covered a lot of ground in two days, even with the light rain on the way back to Manhattan, and it made me excited to come back in December!

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