Sixty-One

Just like everyone else says, I certainly don't feel 61.  Sometime my body reminds me that it is that old, but my soul feels quite young.
I had Coney Island on my bucket list before we leave NY, and dad had Freedom Tower.  Dad had one more personal choice day he had to take before July, so we combined it all to make one fabulous day.  We took the train and subways so it would be less stressful for dad.  I can report that we figured it all out by ourselves, and never got lost.  I love the  train ride down along the river. We took the subway to Freedom Tower, so about 2 hours to there. We had bought our tickets on line, and went up to the top.
Dad will say this was the best part of the day. They did a fabulous job on the structure, architecture, and technology.  The elevator takes 48 seconds to go all the way to the top.  It displays an amazing video all around you as you ascend.  Pretty cool.  My only critique was that there was no where to sit- in line or in a short movie or even at the top. I think they want people to move around quickly. It took an hour in all, but was a lot of standing still, so my back did start to complain. It was supposed to be cloudy, but I got birthday bonuses all day, and it was sunny and we could see forever.
We ate at the same exact pizza place where Bret's Family and I ate lat year. The pizza was fantastic. I took a pic and sent it to Tevia to see if she recognized the spot.
The only one sad thing about the entire day was when I went to take photos, my camera said low battery. I had to use  my phone.  I don't think it takes good pics, and I don't know if I can take them off of the phone. So I only took a few.  Kathy and Tevia would have been in shock. There was so much to photograph on this memorable day.
Then we took the subway all the way down to Coney Ialand. Now, I had heard a lot of negative things about it when I told people I was going, but it wasn't so bad, First of all, school is not out yet here, so it was not that crowded.  Secondly, it was not too awful hot.
We found some gelato, and I got cinnamon and dark chocolate. Yummy!
We walked down to the beach and waded. It was sunny by then, and we wished we had our swim suits on. The beach we larger than we expected, and we saw a few crabs in the water.  It cooked us and we relaxed on the sand for awhile until the sun felt too hot.
We then rode the famous carousal. It is a bit different than most. It does not keep going around, but stops, and your cart swings and glides along a track about 5 ft long. Kinda fun. It was pretty to see the entire park, and the ocean.  I loved it.
I would say that if it was really hot and sunny, and crowded, the place would not have been so fun.
It is a small, Brooklyn area type of place, noting like Cedar Point, but fun to see.
We were giving points when we saw extraordinary things, like an eagle- which I saw fly right past my window as soon as we got on the train.
That was fun.
I always brings singles to give to people performing in the subway.  The first guy was a violinist. He was really good and came onto our subway car.
Dad was reading all the signs in the subway, and inside there was a sign saying,"the poles are for your protection and safety, and not for performances."  He kind of just brushed it off,  Well, our next performance was a young black guy, about 16, who did an act on the poles!  He was hinging upside down, jumping around, dancing to crazy music, and doing a hat and shoe trick. It was pretty entertaining.
We left home at 8, and got home at 7, shorter time than we had expected. I wore my knee brace all day, and it did good until the last hour or so.
From Coney Island to our house via train and subway,= 3 hours.  Not bad, It was relaxing.
A very good birthday!