Mermaid Parade

Every year, the Coney Island corporation hosts the Mermaid Parade.  Being the nation's largest art parade, it overflows with creative expressions of sand, sea, and summer.  Despite the fact that Kristen grew up in Brooklyn, she has never been to the parade before (shocking).  When we wandered down to Coney Island back in April, I saw a building painted with an ad for the parade and was very intrigued.  Seeing how the weather was supposed to be beautiful today, we decided to hop the Q train and see just what this parade had to offer.

Well the weather was indeed beautiful.  The temperature was warm, but not unbearable and the cool breeze of the Atlantic was very refreshing as we walked down the boardwalk.  Unfortunately it was crowded as hell and the combination of crowd + heat + New Yorkers + tourists = a LOT of cranky people!  Navigating through the sardine can that was Surf Avenue was less than awesome.  Once we settled into a viewing spot though, it was all good.

The parade was definitely interesting.  There were countless "mermaids"- men, women, and children alike- showing their artistic expression in everything from a thong and pasties to full out glitz.  There were also plenty of Neptunes, Poseidons, and various representations of clams, jellyfish, seashells, tropical fish, and what I believe to be coral.  They had some classic cars in typical parade fashion and a myriad of floats and banners representing Coney Island history, myths, and legends.

After a while it got too hot to just stand still so we wandered over to Nathan's Famous for hotdogs and fries- yum!! The line was killer, but soooo worth it. We planted ourselves on the sidewalk for a bit and enjoyed a nice cool slushie while waiting for the crowd to disperse a bit.  That sorta never happened, but we caught a second wind and braved the crowd yet again to find a spot on the beach front.  We hung out there for a bit, enjoying all the lil kiddos splashing around in the water, and then strolled on down the pier for a photo op  It. was. gorgeous! Coney Island could not have asked for a better day!!