Our original plans to get out the city were scuppered by the scandalous cost of hiring a car. So instead we got together two dollars and twenty five cents each and hopped on the subway, the A train to be precise.
The prosaic names for lines and stations in New York are a small price to pay for a cheap and quick way of getting about. The A's an express and rattles through Brooklyn and Queens pretty quickly, I mean I have taken the Jubilee line and the DLR so to me it is practically supersonic.
We were headed to Rockaway Beach. Our first stop was the dog park. Pip had travelled in her box so you can imagine how she reacted to being let off the leash in a grassy park. Yes, she had a two minute sniff and sat down next to me.
The strangest thing is that dogs who would most enjoy New York are Scamper and Billy. Pip is so aloof and doesn't actually think she's a dog but Billy would love to race about and Scamper would love to supervise the run. We know they're very happy of course but sometimes it would be nice to have a dog again.
We cut through some housing estates down to the beach. Harriet had a play in the play-park and then we walked along the boardwalk. The wind was extreme.
It was a day not to play in the sand but to admire the violent, crashing waves from a safe distance. In the UK this would be massively over-developed but here there was virtually nothing.
It's the strangest place because it's so familiar, just not from New York, more like some small town in which we've stopped for gas. I know that must sound incredibly patronising if you're from there but hey I'm a foreigner, I don't know any better.
Our dining options were limited with a dog so it was a great joy to find a Wendy's with a few picnic tables out back. We were famished and could enjoy our modest triple-deckers while gazing across the water at Manhattan. We had got out of the city but it was still reassuring to see it so close and soon enough the A was whisking us back home.
Great day.
The prosaic names for lines and stations in New York are a small price to pay for a cheap and quick way of getting about. The A's an express and rattles through Brooklyn and Queens pretty quickly, I mean I have taken the Jubilee line and the DLR so to me it is practically supersonic.
We were headed to Rockaway Beach. Our first stop was the dog park. Pip had travelled in her box so you can imagine how she reacted to being let off the leash in a grassy park. Yes, she had a two minute sniff and sat down next to me.
The strangest thing is that dogs who would most enjoy New York are Scamper and Billy. Pip is so aloof and doesn't actually think she's a dog but Billy would love to race about and Scamper would love to supervise the run. We know they're very happy of course but sometimes it would be nice to have a dog again.
We cut through some housing estates down to the beach. Harriet had a play in the play-park and then we walked along the boardwalk. The wind was extreme.
It was a day not to play in the sand but to admire the violent, crashing waves from a safe distance. In the UK this would be massively over-developed but here there was virtually nothing.
It's the strangest place because it's so familiar, just not from New York, more like some small town in which we've stopped for gas. I know that must sound incredibly patronising if you're from there but hey I'm a foreigner, I don't know any better.
Our dining options were limited with a dog so it was a great joy to find a Wendy's with a few picnic tables out back. We were famished and could enjoy our modest triple-deckers while gazing across the water at Manhattan. We had got out of the city but it was still reassuring to see it so close and soon enough the A was whisking us back home.
Great day.
