I thought it would be nice to recap my final weeks in NY and the friends I’m seeing before I leave, starting with my trip to Governors Island this past weekend.
I love Governors Island. For anyone who doesn’t know it’s a former military base that got converted into a kind of giant park. It opened as a park a few years ago when I was still living in Brooklyn and even in a short time it’s changed a lot. Most things used to be on one end of the island, but now there’s a big park with hammocks, a baseball field, and tons of food trucks on the far end of the island. Plus it has amazing views. The picture above has (from left to right) the Statue of Liberty, Ellis Island, Jersey City, and lower Manhattan.
Because it’s one of my favorite NYC things to do I knew I wanted to go before I moved. When my friend Laura, who I worked with at Abrams and who I lived 10 blocks away from in Brooklyn, came up from DC (where she lives now) I immediately knew I wanted to go to Governors Island for the day.
Laura and I met up in downtown Brooklyn and walked to Brooklyn Bridge Park (with a quick stop for a bagel) where the ferry leaves for Governors Island. The ferry used to be free, but now it costs $2, but the guy said pretty ladies don’t need to pay (but then no one else paid either). The views from the ferry are gorgeous, it doesn’t really capture it above, but you can see Brooklyn, the Brooklyn Bridge, Manhattan Bridge, Williamsburg Bridge, and pretty much all of downtown and eastern Manhattan.
We didn’t have any real plan of what we were going to do on the island. We sat and ate our bagels and then pretty much walked around. We thought of renting bikes, but you can’t ride around the entire island any more, plus we were happy walking. That’s Castle Williams which is on the Manhattan side of the island. I had always seen the outside (it’s pretty big and hard to miss), but for the first time (at least that I can remember) we could go inside. The Castle was used for all kinds of things over the years, but most recently it was a jail during World War II.
There was also a Civil War reenactment happening on the island. Laura and I were actually on the island a few years ago when there was a Civil War reenactment going on and I was excited to see it again. However this one was kind of disappointing. There were only Union soldiers and they were just hanging out in their tents. Last time there were Confederates and cannons and guns.
There was also an art installation happening on the island. I liked that you could see lower Manhattan through this one.
I liked this umbrella one, too and that the middle umbrellas look like they’re smiling.
And here’s me and Laura with the umbrellas.
I also liked this sculpture which is part of the new Hammock park on the island.
Maggie in Minnesota 