Just an in-between post about NYC

This might prove to be one of the shortest posts I've ever written but I just wanted to include it for continuity and I'm sure I can find a photo or two... *finds a photo or two*

Norngirl managed to write up the day after we had our own adventures so well that I don't think there is much more I can add to our next day in New York City. Here is her post about the day. This is the day when, amongst over things, we visited the financial district, the 9/11 memorial, had lunch at Nobu, saw the Ladder 8 'Ghostbusters' fire station and Newsical the Musical. As you do.

And that lack of need to add much more goes for our visit to the Intrepid Sea, Air and Space Museum too which we visited the next morning. I thought was a brilliant museum and well worth visiting.

I especially liked the space exhibits and walking through the aircraft carrier itself. I learnt lots. Clambering through the small doorways in the submarine was something I hadn't considered that I'd be doing that morning when I woke up.

The afternoon of Day 6 (as you might have already read in Norngirls post) we took a full Circle Line Tour around Manhattan, and it's there I'll head to in the next post about our trip last month... in a much longer - more photo heavy - post than this one. It turns out packing to move house still sucks time and energy no matter how many times you do it... the joy of renting! I'll catch up the dedication of Norngirls trip reports yet (give or take a month or two) just you wait and see.

Wandering along the Coney Island Boardwalk

After a walk on the beach I took a wander back along the Coney Island boardwalk.

For anyone in the UK who might not know, a boardwalk is what it says on the tin, a wooden walkway - like a pier but where the promenade would be. Here is some of it being repaired or re-laid.

It was a nice little walk. I'd covered the best part of 6 miles in the day at this point and so it was nice to have lots of little distractions to look at... like painted bins:

And the art work on the side of the walls of the New York Aquarium:

There was proof I was indeed at Coney Island Beach... look - see!

And just to prove that beach is only a step off the boardwalk away...

I took a little detour at the entrance of the Aquarium and took in a better view of the famous Coney Island Cyclone - a wooden rollercoaster.

From the boardwalk you also get a closer view of the amusement parks and the rides like the Wonder Wheel:

I really liked these little (well, rather huge) advertising characters perched on the top of some rather run down looking shops.

Like most of the Coney Island I saw, these guys summed it up, they looked a little in need of a some TLC - which on the most part seemed to be happening - especially with the boardwalk itself which seems to be undergoing some maintenance whilst I was there (like in the first photo).

The buildings that were painted looked the part:

With landmarks like the Parachute Jump tower (depicted in the art on the wall above and shown in the photo below) it's a unique place.

I'd like to visit Coney Island again sometime in the future - during a summer time when there is more open. Even in winter though (albeit a very warm day for February), as a first time visit, it was well worth spending the afternoon there.

Coney Island in Winter

My trip to Coney Island on a mild winter day was a short one but a pleasant one, apart from the Aquarium and the train station, everything I passed on my visit there seemed to be closed. I was expecting this though, after-all it's a beach in Winter and outside the regular tourist season. To be honest I was kinda glad it was very quiet as it really contrasted with the busy of the streets of New York from the New York Giants homecoming parade I attended in the morning. This was the afternoon of the day Norngirl and I did our own thing and this was the one thing I had managed to think up for the day - mainly to be by the sea and walk along the beach but also to see this famous place I'd heard so much about.

The one thing that struck me when I got off the subway train at Stillwell Avenue Station...

and walked to the sea front...

...was how sparse the area is. In my mind, Coney Island was a tightly built up coastline like Blackpool in the UK, it turns out it's not so densely built up, at least these days, certainly there were lots of car parks.

I walked a good way along the beach, there didn't seem much to see to the West so I headed East leaving a train of footprints in the sand:

The sun was out and it was surprisingly warm, if we'd have visited on plenty of other years it could have been freezing cold and snowing but this is the scene of bright sunshine beating down on a pretty empty beach that I found.

The sand at the top of the beach was getting in my shoes a bit so I ventured down to the waters edge where a few other sensible people were already walking.

It was nice and relaxing with a frequent small wave breaking close by.

Lots of Seagulls had also decided to loiter and perch on the rocks, waiting for anything washing up in the surf.

Coney Island is very much a people beach. There were some less pretty sights, like this tyre:

But for the most part it was quite traditionally beachy:

Looking back up the beach, Deno's Wonder Wheel was towering over the gulls.

After a while my legs began to tire so I made my way back up to the boardwalk... and that's where I'll take you in my next post - here.