Governors Island...

On a very, very VERY hot July 4th morning we went on a little trip to Govenors Island. It seemed only right to go and visit the most colonial feeling part of New York on July 4th.

Governors Island is a 172 acre island off the coast of Brooklyn (saying the coast of Brookly makes it sound like there are nice beaches all around the edge, there aren't). The little stretch of water between Brooklyn and the island is called Buttermilk Channel (I'm not sure why though).

I'd not realised just how easy it is to get to the island, from out apartment you just take the G train a few stops and then walk just under a mile to the pier, hop on the free water taxi and then 5 minutes later you're there!

It was a scorcher of a day, so waiting in a queue with the sun beating down on our necks wasn't the greatest feeling, but it was well worth it because Governors Island is beautiful. I thought it felt a lot like Jersey or Sark, it feels very peaceful, very green, very friendly and some of the buildings look fairly similar.

I've been on Wikipedia to do some research and have found out the island used to be used by the British Colonial assembly for New York's Royal Governors, and from 1783-1966 it was used as a US Army post. Then from 1966-1996 is was used by the US Coast Guards - now it's a New York landmark and has a preservation trust looking after it.

Tom had done some research and found out the Rosanne Cash (daughter of Johnny) was playing a free concert in the afternoon, and I'd noticed that She & Him (the band with Zooey Dechannel in it) was playing a free concert after that.

Unfortunately the tickets for She & Him sold out before the time that they were supposed to be released, but we did catch a bit of Rosanne Cash playing infront of the lawn inbetween some of the islands houses.

A lot of people go to Governors Island for the day, taking a picnic and hiring bikes for a couple of hours to cycle round the 5 miles of cycle path on the island, so that's exactly what we did - we made ourselves some sandwiches and after some research Tom found us a very suitable mode of transport for our island exploring...

As you can see, the views from the island a rather fantastic - we pulled over to have a look out at the water and the boats sailing past the Statue of Liberty...

The pedalling was a bit hard going (some of us were pedalling harder than others... Abi?), but the views we were getting made it completely worth it. It was such a perfect day to be exploring the island.

It was lovely seeing people enjoying themselves on the island, cycling around, playing football, playing frisby or tennis, it was very peaceful and the whole island has a very calm and friendly atmosphere... well, it did until we started zooming round in our Quadcycle!

After our legs gave way from all the pedalling we took our bike back and mooched around for a little while. We had planned on going to see She & Him, they were supposed to hand wrist bands out at 3.30pm but for some reason they started giving them out at 1pm, so they'd all gone by the time we got there. Still, it gave us a bit more time to explore and I think we would have been burning in the sun if we'd been standing out in the sun for the whole time.

There are lots of little areas of the island that have a group of houses surrounding a communal lawn, it must have been lovely to live there and have a little island community. I'm not sure what the houes are used for now, maybe they're still occupied - they all look like they've been well looked after anyway.

This was the Commanding Officers residence - complete with cannons!

One of the lovely yellow houses had been turned into a little shop selling lots of different crafty things designed and made by local artists. Some of the things in the shop had been on sale at the Renegade Craft Fair that I went to the other month.

The windows of this house were beautiful, they had tiny little gold anchors painted across them...

You can see the rocking chair out on the porch through the window, and the handmade croché blanket laying over the back, it was a picture perfect old American house.

Governors Island was beautiful and is such a little gem in the middle of New York, it couldn't feel more different to Manhattan with all the skyscrapers and the noise, or Brooklyn with all the hipsters. It was a different world, one that I'm sure Abi and I will be going back to very soon.

Luna-tics...

Our Saturday activities weren't quite over yet - after the brewery, the bowling, the Thai food and the bumping into old housemates, Tom and I headed off down to Coney Island to have some fun at the new Luna Park.

I think I mentioned the Luna Park in another post, but it's a new bit of Coney Island down on the boardwalk, they must have invested quite a lot of money into the area because they have about 10 brand spanking new rides and lots of different games to play.

After surveying all the rides we picked the two that looked most fun and most scary and decided upon the Air Race and the Brooklyn Flyer. The Brooklyn Flyer was our first target...

You sat on a little two seater bench (that looked remarkably like two school chairs glued together), got strapped in and then were taken up to the top of the big tall tower - then you started to spin! It was FANTASTIC! The view was great, and as you whizzed round it felt a bit like you were going to knock into the other rides. Then about 60 seconds later it was all over.

The rides started look lovely as the sun started to set and all the lights started to come on, it looked far more impressive at night (I suppose that's why it's a Luna Park!).

The next ride we wanted to go on was the Air Race - it was clearly the most popular because it had the biggest queue, so we joined it and watched as the little aeroplanes full of screaming people came worrying close to our heads. Unfortunately as we were queueing the shut the ride down for some reason, so everyone ran over to the Electro Spin instead. Then as we were queueing for the Electro Spin the reopened the Air Race! So we ran over and got back in the queue for that... luckily it stayed open and we got our seats at the front of a little yellow plane that spun round and round and upside down (and stayed upside down!).

(I hope this little video works)

The Luna Park was fantastic, it was great fun going on the rides with Tom (just like at Universal Studios and going on the Hulk ride 7 times in a row!), I'm hoping I'll be able to talk Abi into going down to Coney Island and trying out the other rides with me... I'll keep you posted.

Ugly Original...

After feeding our faces in Sea, we had a mooch around Bedford Avenue looking at some of the stuff in the Artists Flea Market. On our way to the subway station I noticed a red tricycle with an umberella and clothes hanging off it, then I spotted someone I recognised...

It was my old housemate Jae! He was selling stuff from his Ugly Original clothing line. It was lovely to bump into him and he gave me a big hug - I'd not seen him since the day I moved out last September, so it was a lovely coincidence.

Sea...

After the bowling we popped into Sea, a rather fancy looking Thai restaurant just off Bedford Avenue. Abi and I had spotted it a wee while ago and had been wanting to go and try it, so having Tom here was the perfect excuse.

It's incredibly stylish inside, with the long pool running down the middle and the Buddha statue standing at the end, they've got larger dining tables at each side of the pool and the fanciest toilets I've seen for a while (I didn't take any photos this time).

The food was delicious and very reasonably priced - we had all sorts, ribs, chicken satay, crunchy seafood salad, crispy duck salad and a couple of other things and it was still only $15 each.

We're definitely going to go back there soon, we're going to go and see what it's like in the evening. We're also going to get one of these for the apartment!

Bowlarama and Football Drama...

After stumbling out of the brewery, we met up with Abi and walked next door to Brooklyn Bowl (it's literally next door to the brewery!). It was quite a different atmosphere and feel in the bowling alley compared to going in the evening. It still looked fantastic inside, it was actually nice to see all the little details around the building - it's brilliant designed and decorated, it feels like being inside a Jasper Johns and Peter Blake painting...

This is where you book your lanes

These are some scary clown skittles

They've got lots of great old fashioned looking signs and typography all over the place

We got our lane, donned our lovely shoes and sorted out the bowling balls that would lead us to victory - I pulled up my lucky socks extra high for a bit of extra help...

But it was Tom who victorious in the first game with three strikes in a row, or as we Pros like to call it - a Turkey.

There was another nail biting football match going on as we were bowling, so I blame my score on the first game on the suspense and the noise from the crowd, but I managed to get my head in the zone for our second bowling game and my socks worked their magic!

After we'd finished bowling we headed over to where everyone else was watching the match, it was a close match and it seemed like the Americans were just clapping anybody at the end.

I absolutely LOVE it at Brooklyn Bowl and it was great to finally be able to take Tom, next time we'll go in the evening when a band's playing to get a different experience.

Brooklyn Brewery...

On Saturday morning, after some pancakes and bacon whilst watching the football, Tom and I went to the Brooklyn Brewery in Williamsburg. At the weekends they do free tours so we thought we'd go along and see what it was like.

The building's quite small in the middle of the more industrial looking area of Williamsburg, but behind those big red doors they're brewing an awful lot of beer.

We got there for about 1pm when the first tour was supposed to start, there was already quite a queue forming so we got ourselves a pint of their Summer Ale while we waited. Then the small crowd of people were herded into the keg room...

To say it was a 'tour' is pushing it a bit, it was a bit of informal chat by the kegs, but it was very interesting hearing where they make their ales, how many bottles they make (they're expanding this year and will going from 12,000 to 100,000 bottles a week - is that right Tom, I can't quite remember?). It was also funny to hear that they sell Brooklyn Lager all over the world, but they've not managed to break into the West Coast market yet!

After the 20 minute talk, we heading back out into the indoor beer gardeny bit with our beer tokens and tried some of their other beers - we had another Summer Ale and a Buzz Bomb (8%!). I think quite a few people go there and treat it like a pub, on each table by the bar is a pizza menu for a local takeaway place - so people go along, buy their beers with their tokens and order a pizza. It's a very relaxed feeling, very Brooklynish.

It was a lovely way to start the afternoon - next stop Brooklyn Bowl.

Ahoy There!

On Friday evening, after leaving work a wee bit early and watching the end of a nail biting World Cup match (we were rooting for Ghana!), we all made our way over to E41st on the Hudson River to board The Temptress.

The Temptress is a little cruising boat that has a dance floor in the middle and is one of a fleet of little boats used by the Rocks Off company. Rocks Off hold gigs and club nights on these boats throughout the summer and on Friday night Mr. Scruff was playing.

Strangely, we were the only ones on board wearing the appropriate attire!

It was a fantastic little boat and there must have only been about 150-200 on board, so it felt like a nice little intimate club. The dance floor was on the lower level and then there were tables and chairs on the balcony on the upper level, so we got ourselves a table and sat down with a drink and enjoyed the view as we set sail around Manhattan Island.

The Skyscrapers looked like they had been coated in gold leaf as we pulled away from the island, it was the most perfect weather for a little cruise.

Mr. Scruff is a DJ from Manchester and has been going for ages - he plays all sorts of stuff from Jazz to Soul to Reggae to Dub to other heavy stuff that none of us were very keen on, but luckily he was playing some FANTASTIC tunes a lot of funky soul music that we could dance along to.

The view out the windows of the boat was just amazing (we tried to get on the outside decks but they were rammed with people, so we decided our little table would be the best spot to stay). I would have happily paid the £20 to go on the cruise alone, but to have Mr. Scruff playing for the whole 3 hours too made it even more fantastic.

The boat went from 41st Street all the way down to the bottom of Manhattan, past Ellis Island...

And past this young lady...

It was absolutely beautiful - we couldn't have asked for a more perfect time to see the Statue of Liberty, I'd never seen it all lit up at night and it was the closest Abi had ever been to it, so we were all hanging out the window taking lots and lots of photos of her (the statue, not Abi!)

As the evening went on, the view kept changing, Manhattan was taking on a a different appearance every 20 minutes as the sky kept changing colour and as the lights slowly started to twinkle more and more...

More and more people were getting on the the dance floor through-out the night, we had our own dancefloor upstair by our table - we could look over the balcony and see everyone dancing and Mr. Scruff doing his nob-twiddling.



At the end of the 3 hours, we were all a bit pooped but we'd had a fantastic time. It was an incredible boat trip, the views were stunning and the music was brilliant, it was a very special night.

PDT...

On Thursday, after stopping off to look at all the lovely architecture, Tom and I popped into PDT (Please Don't Tell) Bar. I had phoned up earlier to try and make a reservation but they were fully booked but said we might be able to pop in and ask for a seat at the bar.

So we got there, and went into the telephone booth - the lady on the other side of the booth said that they could seat us in about 30 minutes, so we went back into Crif Dogs and had ourselves a little drink (of lemonade)...

After half an hour we got our call inviting us through the telephone box, so in we went. Through the small door into the phone booth, and then through the other side in to the dark and moody PDT Bar.

It was nice being able to sit up at the bar this time and actually look around (last time I was in a booth with my back to everything), we could have a look at the other people in there and all the weird and wonderful things on the wall - like the stuffed Jackalope wearing shades!

We ordered some of their fancy hotdogs this time too, Tom had a hot dog with some Mumofuko Kimshi on it (we had NO idea what it was, so we asked and it's a spicy Chinese cabbage mix - like a salsa) and I had a hot dog with some battered soft cheese on it (not really sure what it was but it was nice) and some tomato molasses underneath the deep fried sausage. I wasn't too sure if the tomato molasses would be nice but it was yummy, it tasted of caramalised tomatoes and every now and then there was a slight taste of brown sugar.

Although their hot dogs are fancier on the PDT side, they still come on paper plates, but instead of the flimsy white ones that Crif Dogs used, we got the special heavy duty black ones and we even got some plastic cutlery too!

Walking to St. Mark's Place...

Yesterday evening Tom and I headed towards Crif Dogs after work. If was a beautiful evening so we decided to walk down, Tom had already walked 120 blocks, so another 10 or so wouldn't hurt (Tom went up to Harlem and walked from 127th St. to the Elmwood studio on 17th St!).

On our way down we passed some very different, fantastic buildings. As you walk down 5th Avenue towards Greenwich Village there are some beautiful little townhouses along the side streets, most of them seem to be either University buildings or Dentists - but some of the details on the outside of the buildings are amazing.

This house had incredibly detailed and intricate wood engravings around the windows, the house next door had these beautifully coloured glass windows...

One of the other buildings on the road had one of the most elaborate and decorative house numbers I've ever seen, and it looks just like the carvings on the Elephant Table too...

The detail around the door way was lovely too...

In contrast to these lovely houses, just round the corner from St. Marks Place is the brilliantly modern Cooper Union Building, it looked really great in the evening sun.

That's something I love about New York, all the different styles and designs that are sitting next to each other, just like the people - so many different types of people all living their lives and getting on with it without thinking twice about what anyone else looks like or what they're doing.

Just Starting...

Our friend the Sandman was just starting his creation yesterday lunchtime. Tom got a great picture of the finished piece, so I'll ask him nicely if I can have the photo to show you.

Look Who's Coming To Stay!

Wahooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!
In about 11 hours Tom will be touching down in JFK!
I can't wait - it's been 6 bloody long months, so it's about time for some hotdog action. The sun's shining and there's a slight breeze so the weather's perfect for Tom's 2nd annual summer trip to New York... Abi and I have been sorting out a busy itinerary to keep him out of trouble, so there'll be plenty of photos on the way.