Governors Island

We had a glorious day on Governors Island with the kids and grandpa. We started out a bit late ( as usual..) but made it to Pier 6 and jumped on the 1:00pm ferry. About 10 minutes later we were on the Island along with quite a lot of other people! I say this because although I live so close to "THE CITY", I have never been on Governors Island or really felt the need to see what it had to offer and these droves of other ( non touristy looking people seemed to be on it). Sure, there were some tourists but it felt almost like the city dwellers going to their back yards, with their picnics, bikes, wine, novels etc. 

The main reason I wanted to go was to see this Vintage French Carnival called Fete Paradiso which had opened up a few weekends earlier. It looked like fun and I have been trying to get the kids out doing something of substance every weekend before the snow sets in and we begin winter hibernation!

Anyway, we had the right idea because the day was lovely, we cued up for the ferry early enough and while we waited had ice cream and enjoyed the site of the city (Freedom tower beyond..). Evalie has become very friendly since she became a walker so she was walking ( running basically) up and down the pier greeting her fans the people on line. She chased some pigeons and then got startled when they chased back...

On the Island, there aren't any cars, so everyone walks or rides bikes ( which you can rent if you haven't your own). There is a large well manicured lawn which had some kid friendly art installations. The 3rd Annual New York City Poetry Festival was in full swing along Colonels row, there were really good smelling food carts ( or maybe I was just so hungry..)

We took the long way to get to the carnival and just when Arielle started to get inpatient ( if your have kids you know this happens rather quickly..), we saw the logos chalked into the road..so as we followed these little carousel horse we found Nolan park.

after some rides, we had lunch at Le Gamin...

and a few more rides..

Played in this recycled-cloud by another ambitious architecture student ( yawn..)

and we were done.