From October 8 to November 15, 2024, while The NYC Housing Department was doing lead base painting removal at our apartment, my mother and I were temporarily relocated to The Avid Hotel, located at 636 86th Street of Dyker Heights and Bay Ridge.

The Avid hotel is a midscale hotel from the IHG which stands for the Intercontinental Hotel Group, a British multinational hospitality company. The Avid Hotel hosted a Grand Opening last year on September 21, 2023. When my mother and I arrived there the lobby seemed small, but there was one good thing about that lobby: Every morning the staff offered a free breakfast from 6:30 to 9:30 on the weekdays while on Saturdays and Sundays from 7:00 to 10:00.

We were assigned hotel room 311. The room looked fairly small, but it was good because it had two beds, one for each of us. We also had a T.V. which had many, many cable channels including Nickelodeon. The hotel staff was really nice, and the Avid also offered room service.

But for food, we had to buy from certain restaurants like a pizzeria called the Pizza Wagon, which was opened in 1966. That was 58 years ago, and was 3 years after my mom was born. The second restaurant that we found was a Dominican Restaurant called “El Malecon” which is Spanish for “the boardwalk.” This restaurant was located at the corner of 88th street and 4th Avenue, there they have good Dominican food. Sometimes we ate there, and sometimes we took our food to the hotel.

During my time at the hotel, I did a lot of sightseeing around Bay Ridge. I even walked to the last street of 4th Avenue and got a perfect view of the Verrazzano Bridge. I also went sightseeing on the B63 bus. It covered 5th Avenue to Sunset Park and the Atlantic terminal. This brought back some memories. Because when I was little and while I was living in Park Slope, my mother sometimes took me on the B63 to go around Sunset Park, Atlantic Terminal, or Bay Ridge for either trips or appointments. The B63 is the only bus that goes through those areas. I enjoyed it. It was just like old times.

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We even went to the Staten Island Mall on October 19th with my mom’s friend by taking the S79 select bus from the first stop on Bay Ridge. It took about 40 minutes or so and it was a good bus trip. And We had a good time at the mall because I got to see some stores that I was interested. Also, during my time at the hotel I even enjoyed some events like Halloween. I saw a lot of people in their costumes and in the lobby of the hotel they had candies ready to give to the trick-or-treaters. Finally on Sunday November 3rd, 2024, I watched the NYC Marathon. There were lots of runners coming from Staten Island on the Verrazano Bridge. Some of the runners continued running through the expressway, while other runners ran through 4th Avenue. Boy! There were a lot of runners everywhere, and there was even a local group music band from Rockway Beach called Mighty Quinn playing during the marathon even children. It was a really good 5-week stay at the hoteI. I hope I get another chance to stay at the Avid Hotel to see upcoming events in Bay Ridge.