Wednesday, December 26, 2018

Coney Island Boardwalk, Christmas Eve Day

Christmas Eve Day was another beautiful early winter day here in NYC. In my last post, I'd talked about the first 2 of 3 things I'd wanted to do during my staycation. 1. Help TQ move in - check; 2. Go for a paddle - check. Third thing was way more optional, but the weather on the 24th was just perfect for checking out the new Ocean Wonders: Sharks exhibit at the Coney Island Aquarium.

In my last post I mentioned that there was more blue sparkle, plus sharks - figured I would start off today with the the sparkle and move on to sharks in the next post. This short stroll on the boardwalk wasn't really part of the plan, but it looked so lovely when the Q train got out to where you can start seeing out to sea that I decided to get off one stop before the aquarium and walk there. Just gorgeous.

The beach grass patches you'll see in 2 of the photos are actually fairly recently planted, a volunteer effort with which a lot of my swimmer friends helped out. I was interested in joining them but I think that ended up being one of those "do I paddle or do I go plant beach grass" days, and I ended up paddling - that turned out to be a good call because this was a really popular volunteer project for a whole lot of Coney Island folks, not just swimmers, and I heard they had it all planted in something like a quarter of the time planned! Anyways, the grass seems to have established itself pretty nicely, people were good enough to respect the guard fences that were up during the summer and it's great to see it doing well - had to share a couple of pictures. Nice work CIBBOWS and Bears!

That's it for the write-up - click on any photo for a slideshow view. The one above was my favorite, for some reason! 


6 comments:

LauraEhlers said...

Just love reading of NYC life. What great pictures. The stark beauty is so peaceful.
The perfect way to start the holiday.

songbird's crazy world said...

How was the shark exhibit? We tried to go last summer, but the aquarium parking lot was full and we couldn’t find a spot on the street.

bonnie said...

Thanks Laura! I just love the south coast of Brooklyn in the wintertime - it's such a side of NY that a lot of people don't expect. I'm on a kayak group called the Church of the Double-Bladed Paddle on FB that's focused on sharing the joy and beauty members all over the world find out on the water - I'm pretty sure my joke about "Isn't this just what you think of when you think of NYC?" when I post peaceful scenes like these are getting old but I just can't resist because I'm just always a little blown away myself that stuff like this is available right here in the city.

Songbird - The exhibit was really, really neat, and Christmas Eve Day was actually the perfect day to go, never seen lighter crowds there, and the people who were there were really enjoying it. I'll share pictures soon!

Alana said...

I don’t believe this-my son, husband, cousin and I were there,too, around 3pm on Christmas Eve. We didn’t go in the aquarium because of the cost but walked around and took our own pictures-a little less nature oriented though! Yes, I made it to NYC-a long story I’ll tell in the New Year.

bonnie said...

Oh no, what a small world! I'm sorry I missed you, but I'm glad you got some good family time in the city. Beautiful day for a walk on the boardwalk.

Karen D. Austin said...

I live in SW Indiana, so it's a treat to see photos / read descriptions of another part of the country. (I used to live in DC and in WV, which afforded me opportunities to go to PA, DE, NJ, and NY, but it's been a few years!) I am glad that you are finding some interesting things to do and see on your stay-cation. Be well. Happy New Year.