A classic Bayside home

Stats
What you’ll pay: $550,000
What you’ll get: A three-bedroom house in coveted north Bayside
Distance to midtown: Half an hour to Penn Station on the LIRR; 25 minutes by car (without traffic) on the LIE

So you’ve been fantasizing about walking barefoot across your front lawn to retrieve the Sunday Times. Instead of moving to Mamaroneck, check out Bayside. Lined with quaint Colonials set back on picturesque lots, the northeast Queens neighborhood bordering Little Neck Bay has some of the highest-rated schools in the city. It also adjoins three sprawling parks. “Alley Pond Park is right across the street and it’s never crowded,” says Carolina Stapleton, mom of three-year-old Dylan and baby Lia. “It’s the biggest backyard anybody could have.” The family, who moved to Bayside two years ago, enjoy summer hikes in the woods; in winter, the park offers sleigh rides (Alley Pond Park, Grand Central Pkway at Cross Island Pkwy, 718-229-4000).

The commercial backbone of the ’hood is Bell Boulevard. Stapleton’s neighbor Brigitte Lanzer, mother of Jake, 5, and Erik, 1, picks up Sunday breakfast at the Bagel Shoppe (215-03 73rd Ave between 215th St and Bell Blvd, 718-423-6692) on her way to the park’s picnic area. On Monday mornings, she brings her boys to Barnes & Noble (23-80 Bell Blvd at 26th Ave, 718-224-1083) for story hour. Also on Bell, Maggie Moo’s Ice Cream & Treatery (39-33 Bell Blvd between 39th and 40th Aves, 718-229-0229) offers children’s birthday parties and school trips to learn about making ice cream.