"Last Stop! Coney Island!"

To finish off the month of June, we took our first trip down to Coney Island. It is an hour long ride on the subway to the bottom of Brooklyn. We packed our iPods and books, found seats on the benches in the subway car and settled in for the ride. I actually dozed off for a few minutes, but woke up because of the light coming in the windows of the subway car- we had left Manhattan and crossed into Brooklyn where the subway lines run outside rather than underground. Finally we reached the end of the line, the announcer came over the loudspeaker saying, "Last stop! Coney Island!" and we left the subway station to be greeted by a land much different than the bustling city. There were still tons of people, but the atmosphere was much like the State Fair. Coney Island is a historical area that was once "considered the world's largest and premier amusement area during the first half of the 20th Century. It was a beach resort that provided carefree entertainment and thrilling amusement park rides to the millions of residents that lived in New York City."

After leaving the subway station, we stepped out on the boardwalk of Surf Ave- are we back in California?

For all of you that may have caught some of the 94th annual Nathan's Hot Dog Eating Contest on ESPN on the 4th of July, here is Nathan's were the contest is held. ESPN has an online video in case you missed the action, or want to read up on the final results from local daily news.

As we walked toward the beach, we came across this guy applying sunscreen to his humongous snake. (Note: My roommate Jess is interning at a park for wild animals in Arizona called Out of Africa. She identified the snake to be an amelanistic burmese python. Apparently they have two of them at her park....and I'm sure she plays with them everyday. I'm not jealous, Jess.)

Heeeeeere's the beach!

The waters of the Atlantic as they slosh into the Lower New York Bay. Cold water!

Past all of the kids playing on the beach was a long pier to walk out on.

Behind the sandy beach is the amusement park rides of the classic Coney Island.

Natalie was kind enough to deal with her sand dislike to come down to the water.

Sunglasses and sun on the beach!

Can't beat a sailboat out on the water.
Emily, Nat, and I soakin' up the sun on the beach! (Photo by Natalie)

We only stayed long enough to take a few snapshots at the beach because we had tickets to the Brooklyn Cyclones game. (Brooklyn or Iowa State...Go Cyclones!) As the farm team of the Mets, the Cyclones play at Keyspan Park- down the boardwalk, just off the ocean. We spent the first 6 innings in our seats in the outfield bleachers. I was excited to go to another baseball game, but my mood quickly deteriorated...6 innings of little kids running, jumping, singing, screaming, and squirming + parents with no idea what the definition of the words "discipline" or "control" = me extremely irritated.

Natalie, Emily, and Jessica were on the irritated side as well, but found something to smile about here!

And finally we moved away from the playground to seats on the other side of the stadium. Mona would have never let us be so rude as kids...right, Mom?
(Can you tell that last weekend I was reaching my breaking point? When I finally got to my room Sunday night I knew I was "peopled-out"...not a good thing to be in New York City!)

On our way back to Manhattan, we caught a glimpse of the Brooklyn Bridge all lit up as we crossed the Hudson River.