Wow, day 7 already! I can't believe that we've been at this for a week and aren't even half way finished yet. Saturday was another busy day packed with good times and touristy attractions. We started the day simply by having bagels and hanging out at Anthony's apartment waiting for vampire kitty (Miranda) to arise from her slumber. I don't think that I've mentioned this in any of my travel logs yet, but Miranda has been wearing her cat ear hair barrettes everywhere we go on vacation. Combine that with her purple hair and she's quite "noticeable.". I find myself having to evil eye every teenage boy (and some not-so-teenage-males) that lays eyes on her.
Laela, Miranda, Lauren, Anthony, and I finally left Anthony's and hopped on the subway to make our way to the Staten Island Ferry. We really just wanted to see the Statue of Liberty with our bare eyes and not via pictures. There was no need to wait in line for the tour or have to walk my sickly ass up to the top. We just figured we'd ride the ferry past the statue, stay on the boat once it reached Staten Island and come back. Unfortunately, when the boat got to Staten Island it was taken out of service so we were compelled to disembark. Since we were the first to board the vessel we were the last to get off and just missed the boat back to Manhattan. So there we are at 3:00, stuck on Staten Island, and the concert we wanted to go to at Coney Island started at 4:00. We needed to make an executive decision. Do we wait for the ferry to come back or do we find alternate means for transportation? We ended up leaving the ferry terminal (which by the way is just like an airplane terminal) and hailed a cab to take us to Coney Island. I had not even realized that was an option. I figured that if there was a boat to the island that there wouldn't be a bridge off if it. I was wrong.
So here it is 3:20PM, our show starts at 4:00PM and we're getting in a cab. I'm thinking to myself that there is no way we make it on time to the concert. Anyone who knows me knows that I like to be behind the wheel when in a car and don't do well when someone else is driving. Especially when the someone else driving is a complete stranger. I was white knuckling from the moment we sat down in the cab. I finally had to just close my eyes which worked out to my advantage, because I ended up falling asleep.
We made it to Coney Island at 3:55PM. I was amazed that we had made it. The Village Voice was hosting a music festival called the Siren Festival at Coney Island. This dovetailed nicely with our touristy plans to ride the Cyclone and the Wonder Wheel. John Reis' (Speedo of Rocket from the Crypt) new band the Night Marchers was playing at 4:00. They don't tour much outside of southern California so this was a rare treat to be able to see them in action. It was especially important to Anthony because he's had an opportunity to see them two other times and missed them both due to jacked up circumstances. I thought for sure that our Staten Island debacle was going to be another of these. The Siren Festival had two stages where bands were playing. We got out of the cab in front of the stage where the Night Marchers were just walking onto stage. It was absolutely perfect timing. There were lots of bands playing at the festival so the sets were short. The second song they played was I Wanna Deadbeat You which happens to be my favorite song by them. The crowd was hyped! The 40 minute set was short but it was a lot of fun. John is a consummate showman, know how to work that crowd, and could make watching CSPAN entertaining. When the show was over, we meandered up to the Boardwalk just to kind of take in the sites and sounds.
The Boardwalk is a huge carnival like atmosphere and it was packed with people on a hot July afternoon. As we were walking we heard a carnival barker calling people over to "shoot the freak." We went over to see what it was all about. There was a platform above an empty space between two buildings. There are lots of barriers and obstacles underneath and there is a guy down there called "The Freak." For a small fee, you can try your luck at shooting paint balls at the freak. So Anthony, Miranda, and I each got 25 paint balls and attempted to shoot the freak. It was a blast. Anthony and Miranda did great, but that wily freak managed to dodge all of my attempts at splattering him. When we finished shooting the freak we got lunch at Nathan's Famous Hot Dogs on the boardwalk, another New York tradition. Honestly, it was just fair. I mean how much can you really hype up a hot dog? Sorry New York, I'm about to blaspheme but the Fenway Frank blows Nathan's Famous Hot Dogs out of the water. There are a couple of staple rides at Coney Island. The Wonder Wheel and the Cyclone both of which we wanted to ride. The group split up at this point. Anthony and Lauren went to watch Ted Leo play. Laela, Miranda and I went to ride the aforementioned rides. The Wonder Wheel is a Ferris wheel, but it has cars on the inside of the wheel These cars are on roller tracks so as the wheel goes around the cars are rolling on the tracks too. I am not lying when I say this, but the janky old ass Wonder Wheel was WAAAAYY scarier than anything I rode at Cedar Point. The Cyclone is an old wooden roller coaster that has been in operation since 1927. Those that I had spoken too about it before going to New York had regaled me with tales of how it would shake my fillings loose and how rough of a ride it is. The Racers or the Beast at King's Island are way rougher than the Cyclone. I was expecting to be pounded into submission by it but it wasn't bad at all. In fact it was quite a pleasant ride and much longer than I had anticipated. Once off of the ride we met back up with Anthony and Lauren. It just so happened that Ted Leo was walking off of the stage as we got off of the Cyclone. All told, we only were at Coney Island for three hours, but it felt like we were there all day. It was a really good time. We rode the subway from Coney Island all the way back to Anthony's and it was really nice to be in an uncrowded air conditioned subway car.
After freshening up a bit, we went out to dinner. As soon as we descended into the subway station, we no longer felt fresh. The subway stops, nay, all of NYC is hotter than balls in July. We went to Tony Di Napoli's Italian Restaurant on the Upper East Side. Laela had been wanting italian food for two days and it just never seemed to happen so I wanted to make sure that she got a good Italian meal while we were in NYC. Tony Di Napoli's did not disappoint. The entrees serve 2-3 people so we had the following dishes: Caesar Salad, Fettuccine Alfredo, Chicken Parmesan, Chicken Marsala. It was all delicious. We finished our dinner at about 11:30PM and were just wiped out from the days events so we decided to call it a night. Little did I know, one more adventure awaited....
After dinner we hailed a cab for the ride home rather than trying to navigate the subway since we were now on our own. Having never been in a cab in NYC at night I had no idea that I was boarding Mr. Toad's Wild Ride. The cab drivers are absolutely out of control, not just ours but all of them that we saw. There was no regard for turn signals, lane lines, traffic signals, or pedestrians. It was harrowing. I ended up just trying to watch the flat panel TV that was in the back seat because if I didn't I was afraid I was going to soil myself. I had sat in between Laela and Miranda on the ride home and I think that they still have indentations from my fingers on their shoulders.
It was a great end to a great day. I was happy to get back to Anthony's and get some shut eye though. All three of us were plum tuckered out.
