Gotta get ’em all

Short post today (and technically it’s after midnight), but I’m going to try keeping up daily posting for most of this month in sympathy with my friends who are doing NaNoWriMo. Christy’s going for NaBloPoMo (National Blog Posting Month), and even though I missed a couple days to start, I’m vaguely going to try to keep going.

Yesterday, I finally visited Staten Island, the only borough of New York City that I had not yet visited since moving here. I live in Manhattan, I’ve been to Brooklyn to Williamsburg and Prospect Park, I’ve gone to Astoria in Queens, and been to a couple Yankees games plus the Chihuly exhibition in the Botanical Gardens in the Bronx. But not Staten Island.

So yesterday, I biked down to Battery Park, and hopped on the Staten Island Ferry. Which is free. Such a deal. The ferry is a great ride. Great views of the downtown skyline as we left,the port and close-up views of the Statue of Liberty as we went past. Plus, I just like ferries. I really enjoyed taking the San Francisco-Oakland ferry when I used to take it in the Bay Area. This ferry ride reminded me of that experience, as I had a big goofy grin as we were cruising along. Watching the tourists all try to snap photos of the Statue of Liberty was pretty entertaining as well.

Staten Island itself wasn’t that exciting. Most of what I saw made it look like a typical suburb, with McDonald’s and Subway restaurants near the ferry. I had a bike map, so I headed down the east coast of the island, under the Verrazano Narrows bridge, and then along the south shore of Staten Island. There’s a nice little boardwalk along the beach there with a bike lane, so I cruised along for a while, looking out at the water and enjoying the view. But it was getting cold (45 degrees) and I was getting tired, so I turned back after 7 miles or so.

Back to the ferry, where I huddled inside for warmth, back to Manhattan, back to the apartment for a hot shower. I need to figure out the right layered approach to cold-weather exercising if I keep this up. Or possibly break down and join a gym. But I hate that.

Posted in nyc

4 thoughts on “Gotta get ’em all

  1. Heh. Despite growing up near the city, I think I’ve been to Staten Island only once–coming back on a road trip through New Jersey, getting across on the Verazzano Narrows Bridge.

    Hey—45 F outside is a nice day of biking weather up here in KW!

  2. Hey Perlick. Your post reminded me of the trip to Australia, where we spent a good part of a day seeing Sydney from the ferry, and the photo I have somewhere of you and Schmooz on the ferry, grinning madly with the Sydney Opera House in the background. Thanks for the smile!

    Jen

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