Get yourself to Beer Island...you freak

In an effort to check off at least one of the things on our to-do list this summer, we embarked yesterday on one of our biggest adventures in a long time: Coney Island- Revisited.

Both Eric and I had been there last year- me, with Annette in early March (when it was still the weirdest place I'd ever been, but was waving its Little Russia flag loud and proud), and Eric, with a group of drunken men celebrating the end of a friend's bachelorhood. This was the first time he and I had taken in the glory that is Coney Island together. And, boy, it did not let us down.

We got off the train and were immediately greeted by Popeye's Chicken, the World-Famous Nathan's hot dog store (complete with a countdown clock to the next time crazy people stuff their faces full of the acclaimed all beef product), and men yelling at us to come play their carny games. All this and we hadn't even hit the boardwalk yet!

Next we came across the greatest of all great boardwalk games: Shoot The Freak. We still did not have the guts to actually shoot the freak, but I blame it all on the particularly beligerent "host" for Saturday's edition of Shoot The Freak. What if it was your job to sit and drink beer, eat fries, wear a viking helmet, and yell horribly mean things at people? Like what if you got paid to say, for all the boardwalk to hear, "Hey you with the brown hair- you look like a poodle, you loser" or, to a large-ish man wearing a particularly tight shirt, "You got bigger breasts than my girl, you freak." You can see why we were scared.

After we soaked up the sun on the beach, it was off to the WONDER WHEEL!!

We obviously picked a swinging car, crossed our fingers for no vomiting, and had an adrenaline filled spin around the ferris wheel that was completely worth the $6 price of admission.


Next, it was time to eat. I had my first Nathan's famous hot dog. Delicious. And I also had some cheese fries. You know, there are times when nothing hits the spot like good old-fashioned neon cheese.

And finally (drumroll please), finally we were off to our new favorite place this side of the Mississippi...

Beer. Island.

Now, don't be fooled, it wasn't an actual island. But, it did sport real sand, a lifeguard chair, plastic lawn chairs, and $3 beers. And a BBQ Island (to be sampled next time- and there WILL be a next time). To top it all off, they play the best tunes (hello? Foreigner? Motley Cru? Bon Jovi?) and people of all ages become so overcome with the laid-back spirit of Beer Island that they decide to have their own dance party either on the tables or just right there in the middle of the sand. This, my friends, is the type of bar that other bars can only hope to be. Oh...Beer...Island...

There's just no other place in the world like Coney Island. Where else can you, in one single afternoon, Shoot The Freak (if you're not too weenie, like us), eat a famous hot dog, visit a fake island dedicated to beer, see the tannest man anyone has ever seen, ride a world renowned ferris wheel and not even vomit from the swingin' cars, sit on the beach, look at a roller coaster (lame), and feel like you've stepped out of 2008 New York City and into a place and time from another dimension?

It's only at Coney Island.