Stuyvesant Heights

Our first themed walk has us checking out two of New York's "other" Botanic Gardens during Cherry Blossom season. Cutting through Bed-Stuy and Prospect Heights brings us to the Brooklyn Botanic Gardens early in the day. We don't rest on our laurels for long, heading up to Queens via MIddle Village and Rego Park to check out the Queens Botanic Garden. This walk is also an opportunity to get our first proper looks at Flushing Meadows and Forrest Parks, with paths that hug Meadow Lake and Willow Lake. We've left a mile off the drawn route to account for daily wandering in the gardens.

We stay in Brooklyn this week to continue our survey walks of the area, dipping to the southeast to cover such neighborhoods as Sunset Park, Bay Ridge, Fort Hamilton and Gravesend. The trip up takes us through Bensonhurst, Borough Park, Prospect Lefferts Gardens and Brownsville, grazing Greenwood Cemetery and Prospect Park along the way.