Coney Island Dreams

Because Coney Island will soon be turned into luxury condos, and Hate in the Box was playing at a Burlesque show, we decided to make the extremely long trek out there at 10pm on a Friday night. Unfortunately when we got there, the show was sold out. So we decided to stick around a bit and see what all the hubbub was about.

Coney Island is an amusement park. Though lots of the booths were closed, the rides were still going and many games and food stands were not. I have mixed feelings about amusement parks. The rides can be fun, but they can also make you sick (or injured). The overload of lights, sounds, and smells can add some excitement to a summer night, but they can also give you a headache. But we had to do something other than spend 3 hours on a subway.

So, we rode the Cyclone. I normally veer away from wooden roller coasters because they hurt and are very jarring. (Blame rests with the Grizzly at Great America for that.) But since this one is famous, we had to ride it. We paid our $6 each and waited for the car to finish its current turn. There were only 4 people on this trip, the 2 directly ahead of us, and us. We sat in the front car, 2nd row. It was still a little jarring, but not nearly as painful as I thought it would be. It was certainly fun, but not fun enough for us to ride again immediately following. (Only $4 for a re-ride). And yes, I have a few bruises. But it was good.

Next we wandered around some more and found a shooting gallery game. For 50 cents you shoot a light-beam rifle at little red dots in a scene. When you hit the target, something happens, for instance a guy starts playing a piano or a bear rears up on its hind legs. Apparently Craig is a great shot, because we got to see the actions of every thing there. So there was no need for me to play. Instead, I used my 50 cents on one of those grab-a-toy-claw games trying to get a cute little toy fox. But the game was a stupid kind, using buttons instead of a joystick. You could move the claw in 2 directions as long as you held the button, but as soon as you let go, that was it. My first quarter was wasted on trying to figure that out. The second quarter was wasted on sucking at the game.

That was enough. I got some chocolate soft serve ice cream and we went on our merry way back to the train. At one point we were going to go to Viselka for "breakfast" but the long train ride made us tired so we just went home.

And that my friends, is that.