Yesterday Andy and myself had the opportunity to get away from our crazy work schedule and try find peace in the fast moving New York City, so we booked it to the north tip of Queens and resided at Fort Totten Park for the day. Said to be designed by Robert E. Lee, Fort Totten was designed to be a Civil War fortress, used as an air defense site in the 1950’s, and is now mostly a NYC public park. What’s unique about this place is you can still walk through the old ruins of the soilder barracks and cottages, which are now abondoned and extremely creepy. You can also sign a waiver and walk through the tunnels that lead out to the Long Island Sound, giving you a water view of the fort (the tunnel closes at 4pm, so we didn’t get to this though as we discovered it too late). Not only is it dog friendly, but on a Sunday afternoon it was so quiet and vacant, it almost seemed as if we were the first to discover this beautiful piece of NYC history. We took the car up, which was a 25 minute drive from Greenpoint, Brooklyn, however we did see a few MTA busses stop right out front, so this is definitely an accessible day trip for those of you without your own transportation. Pack a lunch, bring your dogs, and don’t forget your camera, because every direction was photo opportunity!