Coney Island By Night...

Steven, Karen and Ben were all keen too see Coney Island while they were here, so on Tuesday evening, after work we got the Q train down there to have a look at the new Lunar Park and have some hotdogs.

We arrived at dusk, so the sky looked lovely and pink and blue and it wasn't too busy. We all went an got a drink at Beer Island (a sand filled car park really) before strolling along the boardwalk, getting a hotdog and having a go at 'shooting the freak'.

Shoot The Freak is a game on the boardwalk, in between two of the buildings is a pit full of obsticals for the 'freak' to hide behind. At the top of the pit is shooting gallery with paintball guns ready for people to have a go at taking shots at the 'freak' - the freak is just someone wearing protective clothing that runs around trying to avoid the shots. It was a little bit strange, but Ben insisted - I think it's safe to say that not one of us got anywhere near to shooting the freak... I think the guns were faulty! Nothing to do with the people shooting the guns of course.

We walked down to the rides, walked around for a bit, all of us taking photo after photo - and then we went to the new Lunar Park. Coney Island's been going under a bit of a facelift to try and bring in some more tourism and change people's perceptions of the place.

The Lunar Park has got some brand new rides and games an has a fancy entrance - it still feels a little bare, but I think they're still adding to it... I expect by July 4th it'll be all finished ready for Tom's arrival!

Then Ben, Steve and I braved the Cyclone rollercoaster. Tom and I went on in last year and I promised myself that I wouldn't do it again because it hurt quite a lot... but I bowed to peer pressure and subjected my knees to a crushing and my sides to a good bashing on the old rickety rollercoaster. Luckily we all escaped without any major injuries, the only fatality was Ben's sunglasses that came flying off on the first corner (luckily they were knock-offs from Malaysia).

Our final stop was Nathan's hotdogs, we book-ended our visit to Coney Island with some more super healthy meaty treats before getting the train back to the apartment.

It was great seeing Coney Island at night, it had a very different feel and I have no doubt there'll be more blog entries about Coney Island yet to come this summer...