Coney Island, Times Square & The Dakota

For this Sunday afternoon, Bert made the decision for us to venture off to Coney Island , the last stop on the N train. It would turn out to be a nearly 1 hour ride.
Ahh - the countdown for the hot dog eating contest at Nathan's Famous Hot Dogs . [Edit on July 8th - turns out that American Joey Chestnut beat the 6-time winner Takeru Kobayashi this year. Ugh - 66 hot dogs gulped down in 12 minutes!].
Shot from across the street. This place would be packed later:
It was almost 11 o'clock. None of the amusement parks were open just yet. The boardwalk was still mercifully bare as were the beaches. You could tell we weren't in Southern California. No gigantic fake titted chicks with tans or silicone trout lips. No buff muscle Mary's or frat boy dudes here. Not to say that Easternerss are unattractive. That's not the case. It's just refreshing to see people being themselves. There were people of all shapes, sizes, ages, and ethnicities here. It wasn't that fake artificial & homogenous standard of beauty that Southern California "dictates" which happen to be thin (if you're a woman) and/or surgically enhanced, blond, tan and fit automatons.

Bert's main reason for coming here was this is the last year of the old or "classic" Coney Island. Behind this wall are the makings of the "new" Coney Island Project, where it will be bigger and better or whatever they're proclaiming it to become.

There was also a Nathan's on the boardwalk:

Wanna arm wrestle? One of the coin operated games near the Wonder Wheel ferris wheel:

We rode this sucker and it was pretty fun! It's the only ferris wheel of it's kind to have swinging cars.

Eastern view from the Wonder Wheel:

The Western view from the Wonder Wheel. Looks like housing projects. Below is Water Flume ride at Astroland:

We rode the Water Flume (seen below) which was pretty fun. Only one major drop towards the end and we got a bit soaked!

It's a good thing we ate after the ride! We had to try Nathan's Famous Hot Dogs before we left Coney Island. Holy shite! The line was out the door! It took us about 30 minutes. To our left is another line (can't really be seen) for those folks who wanted to buy seafood or chicken. There was a line inside and outside Nathan's!

Finally, at long last:

Bert's chili dog:

A gentleman in front of us had extra printouts of a two for one coupon for hot dogs, so we took advantage of it. I didn't think the hot dogs were anything extra special. True, they had a 'skin' on the dog which gave it a bit of an extra 'snap' when you bite into it. They were beefier tasting than the kind you'd buy at a store however. Not bad...

After Coney Island, we took the N train back to the city and ended up at 42nd Street near Times Square. The ride took about 50 minutes! Fk! I am not a fan of Times Square! I'm not the kind of person that likes to be in the hubbub or crush of excitement.It's too crowded and too noisy! Duh, I know, it's Times Square, but I hate having my personal body space invaded by others. I felt so claustrophic and that I would end up getting crushed and killed! And this wasn't even a big event or anything.

When we passed through, the median was closed off. There was a huge stage with various performers. We caught the tail end of some act from Connecticut (looked like a high school dance troupe) plus the beginning of a Chinese acrobat performance. It was too difficult to see the stage (although it was on the jumbo-tron screen), so we decided to cross the street of death and head for...

the biggest toy store in the world, the Toys 'R Us in Times Square, which is 4 stories of toys, toys and toys!

The life size T-Rex (it moves too!):

Good ole Spider Man. Unfortunately, my photo of an airborne Superman stopping a huge truck came out too dark.

We rode the ferris wheel and stood in line for about 20 minutes for the privilege (ha ha). Nothing is free here! We got a duddy car - it was the Fisher Price Little People. Why couldn't we get Jimmy Neutron or Scooby Doo? Turns out you can't pick what you want. At least we didn't get those damn slutty Bratz dolls or the vapid Barbie-mobile! That poo monster looking thing is a character from the Candyland game board (forgot his name!!!!)

I remember that Captain Jack recommended Gray's Papaya so we decided to give that a try as well. This is the one at Broadway and 72nd. The link I provided is outdated by the way.

I read that particular link prior to our trip and noted that the dogs were .75; well, they raised their prices by $1.00! The dogs were like Nathan's - they had that skin that snapped when you bit into it. But again, I don't really eat a lot of hot dogs and therefore am not a connoisseur of this type of food. It was all right! Their fresh pineapple juice was really delicious though!

I know, a sacrilege - TC and I like ketchup (& relish - I know Lotus is gagging) on our dogs. Bert likes mustard and onions or chili if he can get it.

Although I originally wanted to check out this bakery I read on another food blog, it was too far north so we wanted to check out Central Park. We The Dakota Apartments, located on the corner of 72nd St. & Central Park West. It was a sobering moment knowing that John Lennon was shot to death on his own doorstep by a crazed fan.

We ended up spending the rest of that afternoon looking for Herschel Playground (which we found). We walked across a giant grass field, looking sorely out of place as couples , groups of friends and families had picnics, threw frisbies, or sunbathed. It was a long and tiring day. We ended up going back to our friends' place where they were kind enough to order pizza for dinner.