Cool at the Pool

One thing I’ve discovered, and totally enjoyed, is the Garden City Pool. This has been great for me. I have a place to go with my kids on hot summer days when we are in town and still don’t have any friends. Lol. It requires zero planning and it provides tons of entertainment for them (i.e., less work for me).

City Fix: Coney Island

Woke up on Saturday morning and needed a city fix. The sun was out, mid 80s in August-- a perfect Long Island beach day. After some quick math: City + Beach = Coney Island. The drive was a quick 35 minutes from Garden City w/o traffic and plenty of parking at the NY Aquarium, which has made a nice recovery from Sandy. I hear it will be fully reopened and remodeled in 2016. You can see the Cyclone from the Aquarium parking lot, which sets a nice backdrop for the day. 

After the Aquarium (no need for more than an hour there), you're right in the middle of the boardwalk action. We caught an awesome sandcastle contest on the beach. My friend Kenny, who is also a fantastic photographer, captured the artists with his lens and gave us an insider's view of Coney Island. The kids loved the rides at Luna Park (definitely get the 20 ticket pack for 2 kids) and of course we stopped at Nathan's for hot dogs and lemonade. I wouldn't wait in that line again, but I would hit the original Nathan's next time. It's a little bit more than a block off the beach. Yes, this is the site where Joey Chestnut ate 73 hot dogs on July 4th to roaring crowds. 

Smackdown with the Mailbox

Funny thing about suburgatory- even the mailboxes are different.  Now maybe I’m a naive city girl, but I have never seen a drive up mailbox -- just one of the many “conveniences” that you get in the burbs. Forget those days of unnecessary walking to mail a letter. You simply pull up, throw the mail down the chute that sticks out like an elephant’s trunk and drive away in your minivan.  Seems like a perfectly safe and convenient way to deposit your mail. Well, sort of… if you’re not a suburb newbie.

Ever wonder what might happen if you try to stick 120 letters (i.e. new address cards) into one of these things at once? Well, they get stuck in the chute. Yup they got stuck and of course, instead of letting the professional mailbox people handle it, I took matters into my own hands and stuck my arm down the chute to push them in further. When that didn’t work, I then tried to pull them out and inadvertently pulled out another person’s mail. I think there’s a federal crime in there somewhere- but I did put it right back- 5 second rule?

City Girl Meets Costco

I had my first Costco experience last week. Coming from tiny food markets, specialty stores and one small grocery store, I didn’t know what to expect from the warehouse.

Truly massive containers of everything filled the shelves- salt, peanut butter, hummus, etc… After wondering why anyone would need such massive quantities, I realized what everyone must have in common: STORAGE SPACE. That is certainly one thing that city dwellers lack and constantly envy. Now that I have ample storage space, I was free to join the crowds and buy, buy, buy. Randomly placed free samples of food seemed to attract the shoppers. I think I saw the same guy in different disguises go back multiple times to rock extra crab dip samples.  I’ll have to remember this tip for next time if they’re offering something really good, like anything chocolate.

I wisely kept my first trip short and after being persuaded by the guy at check out to upgrade my brand new membership to the gold star executive level, I pushed my massive cart out to my minivan (yes, I now own a mini van). Now I’m at home with fifteen half gallons of milk in the fridge (seriously), a box of Cheerios that’s the size of my microwave and an eight-pack of Neosporin- some of which I will bequeath to my grandchildren. The take home: I prefer the intimacy and charm of those tiny, overpriced city markets, but I can say that I survived Costco, even accepted it for it’s place in suburbia, and will likely return for more Cheerios one day.