A Trip to Coney Island

My friend's lovely daughter visited New York last week and in between her trips to Manhattan, I took her to Coney Island to see the sights. What, after all, is a trip to New York without a visit to a real-live side show?


^^The art work in front of the Coney Island Side Show is amazing. I was going to shoot closeups of the art inside the lobby area, but the master of ceremonies told me it was copyrighted and to please not photograph it.


^^The woman on the right climbs up a ladder of razor sharp swords and is also a fire eater. She's pretty amazing. I wish I had a picture of the sword swallower because she was totally adorable. If you want, you can click here to see her image on another site. (Check out the footwear on the master of ceremonies--yes, people, those are flip-flops. Someone needs to get that man a pair of pointy-toed saddle shoes pronto!)


^^Coney Island is sort of frozen in time. The whole place has a 1950s-ish feel to it. I know someday that the developers will figure out how to get rid of all the nearby projects and poor folks and when that day comes, Coney Island will likely be reduced to a quaint corner protected by some preservation society.


^^It some ways, there are modern touches. Check out the mural in the back of the ride, which serves as a background for the Breakdance. Betcha the rides at your local amusement park don't feature Tupac and Biggie.


^^When you see the guy who gives out change in the arcade wearing Crocs, you know the craze for this wacky show has officially hit New York.