My day of birth

Since I seem to be suffering from blogger's block I've decided to do the easiest thing to cure it: post pictures!

Last Sunday was my birthday (hello late twenties!). On Saturday we went out with a bunch of friends to the destined-to-become-wildly-popular Governors Island. This little island is about 140 acres and sits between Manhattan and Brooklyn in the upper harbor:

This island has had many lives: colonial fort, Civil War fort, Coast Guard base, and, most recently, National Park. No one lives on the island now, so they have converted a lot of the non-historic buildings into artist space as well as created an outpost of the Children's Museum. This also means that the car is essentially car free, so it's a biker's paradise. The weather was supposed to be perfect for being outside, so I figured let's do it!

Here I am waiting inside the ferry terminal. We got to the terminal building at 11--30 minutes before we were supposed to get there, an hour before the 12noon ferry we were going to take, and 90 minutes before the 12:30 ferry we ended up going on.

They started boarding the ferry 15 minutes before departure. While we were parked there I got some nice pictures of the city on a surprisingly beautiful day. Here is the view from the ferry looking at Brooklyn Heights, with the Water Taxi creeping into the picture. (The row of trees at the base of the buildings are the Brooklyn Heights Promenade.)

This is a first for See sRod Run: a picture of Wifey!

This one is looking at the building we just came out of. The Governors Island ferry building is one of my favorites in the whole city.

Here's the sconce from the picture above in detail. Pretty cool.

After enjoying the breeze for a bit at the terminal we pulled out from the dock.

This is an action shot looking at the South Street Heliport. That's the Brooklyn Bridge in the background. In the mid-ground is some badass in a helicopter that is probably destined for JFK Airport in eight minutes (by car it takes about 45 minutes, without traffic).

We also caught the 12:30 Staten Island ferry departing from South Ferry.

Here's the view of Manhattan as we closed in on Governors Island (the huge ferry ride lasted about 10 minutes). Battery Park is the green area to the left.

Once we got on the island we rented bikes. I realized quickly that it has been well over a decade since I had been on a non-stationary bike. I looked like a damn fool on that bike for the first couple miles. (Sorry, no pictures of that, looking like a fool while on a bike is not conducive to picture taking.)

On the southern tip of the island we set up camp/grabbed a pinic table and started eating. Here's the view from the table. Our bikes in front of the Statue of Liberty.

Unknown to me at the time (I found out later while watching the news the next day) they were celebrating the 400th anniversary of Henry Hudson's voyage up the Hudson into the wild of upstate New York by having historical ships replicate his trip. Here's one of the ships.

This next picture has some special significance. If you look just left of the trunk of the tree you see a faint blue tower in the background. See it? That is the Verrazano Bridge--the starting point for the NYC Marathon. There is a good chance that the next time I see that bridge I will be toeing the starting line of the Marathon.

Here's Wifey and I enjoying one of the many free hammocks in the park for the public to enjoy.

Here I am showing off my farmer's tan and the spinner form my birthday present. We didn't get to play because they closed the park. Boo!

Wifey and I getting ready to ride back to the ferry dock.

The view up the promenade to the fort with downtown in the background.

Two of our friends going bakc to the ferry with us. Due to an odd circumstance only one of them got a bike at the end fo the day.

On the ferry going back to the city. Turns out there was a Jazz festival going on all day at Governors Island and they encouraged people to dress up in clothign fromt he jazz age. Here's a couple that went all out. And what's he lookign at in his hands? A Blackberry.

Forward to Sunday, my actual birthday. Wifey snapped a picture of me just before I headed out for a speedier than anticipated five mile run on the Central Park trails.

Finally--in an inpromptu tribute to Jess, who has spent eight months off the bottle--we visited the new beer garden in our hood (yes, be jealous peoples, we have two giant beer gardens here in Astoria).