Wednesday, 30 May 2012

New York: Day 10 - Coney Island and New York Aquarium

Coney Island was everything I hoped it would be.  A little seedy, a little rough around the edges, old and outdated and a tad worse for wear.  It was like stepping back in time, to a place where health and safety regulations were not a high priority.



Myself, Whitney and Breigh waiting excitedly to get into the action.  You can see how bustling the streets are.


Marc and I dragged Breigh and Whitney along with us to experience the fear, pain and stench of failure and desperation.

We got off the train and were greeted by Nathan's, the famous hotdog "restaurant".  We went in with the best intentions to purchase and eat one of their famous blended pig snout rolls but once we actually saw them in person we couldn't bring ourselves to actually eat them.  The risk of food poisoning and death were just too high.  Instead we all got deep fried fish sandwiches.





Some one was excited by the boardwalk!





Largest freefall ride ever!
Although it was enough to scare this midget.



After forcing down our alleged seafood sandwiches, we thought it best to wait a little while before risking our lives on the roller coasters.  We decided to visit the aquarium which included a 4D Happy Feet Experience.  Aquarium highlights would be seeing my first walrus and a very well choreographed sea lion show.



MAY CAUSE TOE-TAPPING!!!!!!
WALRUS!!!!!







Once we had our aquatic animal fix we headed straight to the cyclone, an old wooden roller coaster that looks like it should be decommissioned.  It was AWESOME.  The ride was so rickety and it screeched at every turn.




Adrenaline rush over with we decided it would be much more pleasant to hit up some of the carni games. Here I was able to tick off one of my goals in life - playing whac-a-mole!  I have wanted to play that game my whole life and I finally got a chance.  Sadly I did not win.  The husband out-whac'ed me but I was able to keep the toy husky that he won so it wasn't all bad.




We played a few other not as cool games until we were out of coney credits.  Breigh and Whitney still had enough cash on their coney card to have a ride on the Soaring Eagle.  This was to be Whitney's second roller coaster ride ever!


This photo does not adequately capture the fear.
As we walked back to the train, we got one last taste of the old Coney Island - the freak show!  I was a little disappointed as I don't think the people they had out the front were freakish enough to actually get us to pay money to go in.  Hopefully next time we are back we will be there in time for the famous mermaid parade!


The freakish part is probably more to do with their sense of fashion.

Wednesday, 23 May 2012

New York: Day 9 - Staten Island

Whenever I come to New York I always catch up with my cousin Sara and her family over on Staten Island.  We always go over to her house and her mother in law cooks us an amazing Italian meal and they make fun of the Aussies.  It's a tradition.  This time was no exception, and with Marc in tow, there was much more to make fun of!

Marc and I caught the ferry over to Staten Island and tried to jostle the many other tourists out of the way to get a good shot of the Statue of Liberty as we went past.  Unfortunately, those with prams won and we weren't able to get a great view of Miss Liberty.  After the very efficient and always free ferry ride, we had a look around the ferry terminal which had views back to Manhattan.


Trying to shove children out of the way so we can get a decent pic.  Children can be so selfish. 

Looking back at Manhattan from Staten Island


We then made our way to Sara's house where we caught up with the family including Bob, the cutest puppy ever!  Dinner conversation revolved around Fosters beer, how Marc and I were yuppies and the reasons why one should live on Staten Island and not in Manhattan.  There were a few racial slurs thrown in for good measure.  It was the perfect night!
From left to right: Angela, Mike, Leigh, Marc, Louis, Sara, Uncle James
Forcing my love on Bob.  "Why wont you let me love you????"
My super cool cousin Sara
Me and Bob
Manhattan skyline at night.
Thanks Schroeder family for a lovely dinner!

New York: Day 8 - Walking across the Brooklyn Bridge

Marc and I planned a whole day over in Brooklyn.  Eating pizza at Grimaldi's, grabbing an ice cream from the Brooklyn Ice Cream Factory and then walking over the bridge.  We didn't anticipate any problems with this plan and naively went on our way with empty stomachs.  As we approached Grimaldi's we noticed a line of people snaking down the street.  By this stage it was getting close to 3pm and I was extremely close to moving from hungry to hangry.  We didn't bother lining up so wandered down the street to check out the ice cream situation.  This was just as bad.  We abandoned our plan to eat at either of these places and found an alternative pizzeria with availability.

First sighting of Brooklyn Bridge
The stupidly long line for Grimaldi's
Should have moved to a bigger place
This photo would have been so much better if a dog was peeing on it.
After our delicious cheese pie (don't ask me why Americans call it a pie.  It looks nothing like a pie and everything like a pizza.  Fools.) we walked around the waterfront and at the amazing view of downtown Manhattan.

Checking out the East Ferry Wharf, looking across to Manhattan

Downtown Manhattan

Statue of Liberty
Some Sydney Harbour Bridge rip off 

Still full of "pie" we slowly made our way up to the Brooklyn Bridge to walk back across to Manhattan.

Starting to walk across the bridge


Looking across to the Manhattan Bridge