I did a mascot gig with Hi-4 for Maple Sugar Sunday at Stamford Museum. The weather forecast was rather dire on the amount of snow expected on Sunday but I figured there was a good enough chance that the snow wouldn't amount to much, so I didn't opt out of this gig. I began to doubt my hunch when snow started coming down while I went for the Beware of the Dog! and Purchase Pipe geocaches in Westchester on my way to Stamford. Well, guess what? The snow slowed to a few flakes here and there and none of it stuck. So it wasn't a bad day after all.
Our group this time was
jbadger, jimwolf24, Damian, and I. Our changing area was in the children's activity center building. We took turns going out two at a time in costume. It wasn't a terribly big event but there were still many people who took a chance on the snow and attended the event. There was a paved path all the way around the farm area so I took a walk in costume there and interacted with people and kids along the way. On my second time out, I stayed mostly near the center part of the nature center grounds because the path was wet from ice melt. On my break, I changed out of costume and toured the area as a regular visitor, sampling some popcorn and maple donuts and watching the maple sugaring demonstration. I also took some photos and video.Our post-gig dinner plans fell through because the Thai restaurant in Greenwich apparently disappeared without a trace some time during the last few years. So we split up. I went with
jbadger to Flushing Chinatown to try some eateries from this New York Times article. I had Hand-pulled Noodles with Mutton at Lanzhou Handmade Noodle at Golden Mall Food Court. This food court, hidden away in the basement of Golden Shopping Mall at the corner of 41st Road and Main St, was an incredibly cramped space subdivided into a dozen or so food vendors. I had to change seats because someone needed to push a stack of boxes down the narrow aisle. I thought the mutton and noodles were okay. The soup had more spices in it than anything you'd find in any run-of-the-mill Chinese place. For dessert, I had cheesecake at Sun Mary Bakery, another place mentioned in the NYT article.