EV Grieve

Tuesday, May 26, 2009

At Manhattan's first Water Taxi Beach

If I'm getting dragged down to the vicinity of the South Street Seaport, I'm at least going to make us take a look-see at Manhattan's first Water Taxi Beach. Which opened this past weekend behind Pier 17, where the suburbs meet Manhattan.

First things. You will really want/need a drink.

I went to look for a beer in the tent.

There is food. Burgers. Hots dogs. Fish tacos. Etc. And there's soda. Including root beer on draft. The beer?

On the boat/yacht. Which seems to be lurching a bit in the wake. Or maybe I'm just lurching.

They have three kinds of bottled beer for sale now: Old Speckled Hen, Harpoon IPA and Jever. Nothing more obscure, like Budweiser?

Hey! Watch out for the bridge! Hard right! Hard right!

Anyway, I ask the bartender if they will sell beer elsewhere on the Beach. Like under the tent. Absolutely! Give them a few weeks. They are just getting up and running. Speaking of running, where are the bathrooms? Oh, you have to go up to the second level inside Pier 17. They'll have bathrooms eventually, too.

During this late-afternoon hour, it's mostly families on the beach. And tourists. Tourist families? Kids are playing in the sand. Having fun. Being kids. A mother changes her son's diaper on the picnic table. I wish I was wearing a diaper so I didn't have to traipse up to the second level restrooms. It's not so bad. It's a chance to browse in the As Seen on TV store.

As for the activities, you can listen to your fellow picnic tablers talking on cell phones to friends and loved ones back home. "I am L-I-T-E-R-A-L-L-Y looking at the Brooklyn Bridge..."

And there are activities for kids of all ages...like skee ball...

...Ping-Pong

...putt-putting (just watch the water hazard!)...

...bridge watching...

...trying-to-be-abstract photo taking...

...taking pictures of people taking pictures...

Uh, miss? Yes, you squatting there. The restrooms are on the second...Oh, sorry.

...listening/dancing to the DJ.

But there is no fishing.

Everything that you've ever wanted to know about the "Free Willie" Nelson RV on Third Street (and no -- he's not inside...)

Last month, I did a post on the "Free Willie" Nelson RV that has been parked on Third Street between First Avenue and Second Avenue...

It continues to intrigue...thanks to the EV Grieve reader who pointed me to the FAQs the owner has posted on the side of the RV...

And commenter Eliza has been inside! "The walls are choc-filled with fascinating trinkets & is rather spacious. hooray for this whale!"

How warm did it get over the weekend?

Warm enough to turn on the AC for the first time this year at the Mars Bar...

"Splendor in the Grit"

Thanks to Facebook friend Stacy for pointing out an article by James Wolcott in the June Vanity Fair. Story title: Splendor in the Grit. It begins:

With Wall Street neutron-bombed by its own hubris and the American economy crawling along the curb, jitters have broken out that New York City might revert to the crumbling mayhem of the 70s, when it was every freaky hair ball and wounded bystander for himself—Mogadishu on the Hudson. When one ponders the 70s (as I, working on a memoir of the period, do), the word “pretty” doesn’t jeté to mind. Nor do the words “dulcet” and “fastidious.” From surviving artifacts, it’s easy to draw the impression that everybody was living in rubble and yelling like Vincent Gardenia.