A day in Brooklyn (Sat 11th July)

I guess this was the first 'full day' our trip... even though the half day before was over 25 hours long! Kicking it off with brunch at an authentic American diner ticked off one of our 'must dos' and introduced us both to Nova Scotica lox... otherwise simply known as salmon. Having Jason as our tour guide was totally invaluable as he then lead us to Washington square park, past the street vendors and trendy shops of Soho, through the craziness that is Chinatown, to city hall and it's pleasant garden, over the iconic Brooklyn Bridge then by subway to Coney Island. In fact having Jason there, we may almost have passed by as locals... except that NYC locals apparently don't stop to photograph squirrels or look up in amazement at the Woolworths and Municipal Buildings. Coney Island is an totally amazing place, not just for the long, pleasant, Atlantic facing beach and it's thousands of people (who's numbers can apparently swell to a million during a heat wave) but also the historic and totally iconic amusement area. Historic is a good word for the Wonderwheel in Astroland, the history of it well and truly showing and not at all helped with the salt from that ever present Atlantic. Shona and Jason colluded to select one of the swinging capsules... Shona's defense being that Michael's fear of heights might handle being flung towards a 130 foot drop better than a gentle ride to 150 feet. Jason struggled to convince us both that the cyclone (this is the world original) is reliably rated in the 10 ten roller coaster in the world -even after all of these years. At the end of the ride there could be no argument however and the literally white knuckles and in ride photograph provided the best tribute to it's reputation. Nathan's 4th July hot dog eating contest may have just been -but we simply had to try their Original Frankfurter, complete with mustard and ketchup (Dee Anne -there was no tomato sauce so the ketchup had to do!) Jason also introduced us to "cheese"... which may not actually contain any cheese products! Ted (half of legendary New York ukelele band Sonic Uke) and Dolan kindly invited us out to their Brooklyn apartment for bbq burgers on the deck -to which we gladly accepted. Again the subway is the best form of transport and view from the balcony proved to be well worth the trip. In one direction they can see Lady Liberty, while directly across the road is the Green Wood cemetery, where the spirits of the fallen rise up from the ground during dusk on a fine summers evening. No seriously -the hundreds upon hundreds of fireflies made for an absolutely surreal experience... which wasn't even topped by the amazing lightning show that started when the heavens opened around midnight. Even a loan raccoon ran into the cemetery for shelter as Ted found other ways to calm his nerves. With the warm apple pie finished we made a dash for the subway, inadequate umbrellas deteriorating on route, as we made it home and into bed by 3am.