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July 24, 2006
Coney Island
This past Friday, Jocelyn and I went to Coney Island for the day, followed by dinner at a French restaurant in midtown with some of Jocelyn's friends. A while ago, Jocelyn had pictures up of Coney Island on her blog and I was shocked to learn that it's an actual place! I had always thought of Coney Island as being a place like Atlantis that people talk about, but everyone knows it's not real. Anyway, Jocelyn and I met at Grand Central and left for Coney Island from there. When we got to Coney Island, we just barely made it into Nathan's in time to have their world famous hot dogs for lunch before a huge storm started. Jocelyn and I ate our super healthy hot dogs at a table with a bunch of "Azn gangstas" who spit chicken bones into a cup while we were eating. Gross.
Inside Nathan's:
Jocelyn taking pictures of the rain outside:
Coney Island subway station:
Jocelyn and Me:
Rain:
Once the rain let up, Jocelyn and I went to one of the Freak Shows nearby. We didn't actually go in, but seeing the outside was enough for us:
In between thunderstorms, Jocelyn and I managed to get on the Cyclone, one of the oldest roller coasters. It's this giant old wooden death track that goes so fast with so few safety precautions that you can actually feel yourself lifting up out of the seat and off the track... but we made it out alive!
The Cyclone:
As our trip on the Cyclone came to a finish, we saw safety right ahead of us... the boarding/DE-BOARDING station, de-boarding being the key element here. The de-boarding station came and went and our train of cars went half way back up the giant incline that leads to the first big drop... and stopped. Everyone was freaking out as one of the maintenance men climbed up the side of the track, poked around at a few things, and even climbed under our car to do whatever it is he was doing. I asked if everything was OK and he responded with something along the lines of "Uhhgrrrnnnnmmmmughhhh" or some other drawn out grunting noise that means "I don't want to tell you." Everyone begged him to please let us just go backwards and get off but no such luck! We went around the whole track again! Despite the terror-factor, it was actually a lot of fun and I might consider doing it again some day.
After our near-death experience, Jocelyn and I walked to the New York Aquarium to see the fishies! Jocelyn said it put her in the mood for seafood (hence the halibut she had for dinner). Outside the aquarium, we saw this gorgeous butterfly:
Turtle:
Sting ray:
Sea life:
I wish I could have gotten a better picture of this giant spiny crab (that's not the official name, although it should be). This isn't just a really close up picture, he's actually HUGE:
Pirannah:
Turtle:
Fish:
Upside-down jellyfish (no, they're not dead, they're actually supposed to be like that):
"Moon" jellyfish:
An extremely grumpy-looking deep-sea fish we named "Dad":
It's hard to see them because they blend in, but there are seals in the water here:
Otters!
Penguins!
Another one? What were they up to....
Shark:
Fish:
Here's a seal from under that same "tank" we saw outside. If you look closely, you can see the water toys that the seals get to play with:
Friendly seal:
The octopus wouldn't come out of hiding:
Seahorses:
Pregnant daddy seahorse:
More seahorses:
Fish:
Fish:
Sea stars:
Sea urchins:
Giant lobster:
Sting rays? Skates?
Walrus:
Walrus up top:
The aquarium was a lot of fun, I think my favorite part was either the walrus tank or the seahorses. After the aquarium, Jocelyn and I walked down the boardwalk and took some more pictures.
The Cyclone:
Astroland:
"Shoot the Freak":
Nathan's hot dogs:
Mural:
Jocelyn and I took a car service from Coney Island to Jocelyn's Barbie Dream Loft. It was an extremely long ride, about an hour and a half I think, because we got caught in flood traffic! We were bumper-to-bumper for so long and couldn't figure out why, but then we drove right through a flood (waves and all!) in the middle of the highway!
Flood:
When we got back to Jocelyn's apartment there was a flood there, too. Fortunately, it didn't damage Jocelyn's apartment, but it destroyed some of her neighbors'.
After getting ready, Jocelyn and I took a cab to the restaurant Tout Va Bien to meet up with Jocelyn's friends for a nice French dinner.
Outside Jocelyn's apartment building:
When we got to Tout Va Bien, Jocelyn left for a minute as I watched the purses and had some creepy French guy ask me where, specifically, I live and try to buy me a drink (which I declined). His name is Alan, and there are pictures of him coming up. Some of Jocelyn's friends arrived and I got put on purse duty again, but this time it was a middle-aged Floridian asking me if he looked like a redneck. I said no, even though he was, perhaps, the only person in America who actually does look like a redneck while wearing a Lacoste polo. He told me that he's going to invent a bicycle that can ride on water and he's going to be the first person ever to ride straight around the world on a bike. Why me?
Anyway, once everyone got there, we all sat down for a delicious French dinner.
Debbie and Alex:
Jenny (from Paris-- she recommended this lovely little French bistro to us), Dave, Martin, and Angel:
Alice, Me, and Jocelyn:
Jenny with a gigantic plate of muscles:
As the night progressed, the waiters brought us free champagne and dessert!
One of the free desserts:
That chocolate cake was so delicious and HOT! Not warm, but hot which made it so much better.
The waiter used a wine glass to pop the cork on a bottle of champagne for us:
I don't really know how it works, but I think he just rubbed the wine glass on the side of the bottle:
Champagne and wine:
Cheers-ing... something. After the endless bottles of wine and the free champagne that went around that night, I doubt anyone paid attention to what we were drinking to:
If you look in the background, by this time Alan and his friend Craig had joined our table.
A really sketchy cookie that Jocelyn found on her roof I think:
Alice, Alan, and Craig:
Craig seemed likea normal guy, but Alan was completely trashed and was hitting on slash groping all the girls at the table so one of the waiters came over and asked him to leave us alone. Alan grabbed my arm and started blowing on it which was so gross, but at least he wasn't feeling up my thigh like I hear he did to the other girls. I apologize to everyone for speaking to Alan at the bar earlier that night... it was an unpleasant and unwelcomed conversation that I couldn't avoid.
Despite the creepy French men, we had an amazing dinner with some of the most delicious food ever! I actually even tried muscles and escargot and loved it, can you believe it? I guess the aquarium put me in the mood for seafood too, haha. All right, that's all for now. Brent is visiting me early tomorrow morning so I have to get some sleep. Goodnight!
Posted by lauren at July 24, 2006 11:11 PM