Who knew you could camp in New York City? Turns out you can. We spent Memorial Day weekend camping in Brooklyn and we have decided this is hands down the best way to do New York with kids. There is an old air field, Floyd Bennett Field, that has been turned into a National Park. We camped along an old abandoned runway. It would make a great place to film a post apocalyptic film.
We drove up Friday, and spent the afternoon at Coney Island. It was a beautiful day and there were lots of people at the beach. This girls had fun riding all the Coney Island rides. The Cyclone is one of the oldest Roller Coasters. Sienna was a 1/4 inch to short to ride, but they guy let me ride with Natalia in place of her. It was awesome. The girls had a blast and there were no lines at any of the rides so they road non stop rides for about three hours. They each got one pass for the sling shot ride. It is a ball connected to bungee cords that slings riders into the air. Natalia decided it looked to scary, but Sienna wanted to go and I got to ride with her. It was crazy and we went so high. We both loved it.
We set up camp Friday evening and we loved having a big new tent. Saturday morning we took a ferry into Manhattan. The ferry was great because it was a nice ride and we got a good view of the Statue of Liberty. This was one of the things the girls really wanted to see. We walked to the 911 Memorial and that was a somber but worthwhile experience. We went to Chinatown and Little Italy to eat lunch and had fun hanging out with our friends the Maycocks as we walked around New York. The girls had fun looking at the tall buildings, but it was really hot and they got worn out. We will definitely have to take them back sometime to watch a play and see more of Manhattan. We spent the evening back at camp and all the kids has a blast playing and riding bikes and such.
It started raining in the early hours of Sunday morning and it did not stop until about noon on Sunday. It is was crazy rain...so we hunkered down in the tent. We played games an ate instant oatmeal and we were really glad for the extra room. We didn't mind the rain so much, but the temperature dropped and it was really cold the rest of the day. We didn't plan for it getting this cold, so we did not have warm enough clothes, but it didn't stop the kids from playing outside. Fortunately we took a tour of the airplane hanger in the afternoon. We heard it was a two hour tour and we thought that sounded crazy because the park rangers we had met up to that point were some of the least knowledgeable people we had ever come into contact with.
The tour was awesome and the guy leading the tour kept the kids interested the whole time. We learned so much about planes and we got to go on several and it was really fun...and not cold.
We watched some wind surfers...did I mention our campsite was also by the beach? And then all the kids turned their scooters into wind board with thier towels. They played outside in the cold wind and it did not seem to bother them at all. Thankfully two of our friends had trailers that we adults hung out it. This was supposed to be our beach day, but it was way to cold for that.
Monday was nice again, not warm, but not uncomfortable. We played around camp, watched some guys fly remote control planes, and packed up. It was a great weekend and lots of fun. I definitely think we will come back again.
