Summer 2012: Island Hopping, Part 1

Over the last few summers I've made plans to visit places in New York that I hadn't visited before. I've still only completed those plans to varying degrees of success, as there's almost too much to see in the City, and I have too much going on.

So this year, I decided to make thematic plans instead. Rather than make plans for a road trip, head to a show, or take an exotic vacation, I thought I'd go island-hopping this summer instead.

What do I mean?

Well, Manhattan is an island. I work on Manhattan. But for all the many years that I've lived in New York State and now worked in New York City, I've never been to many of the islands that surround it, including:

Staten ** Ellis ** Governors ** City ** Randall's **Roosevelt

Well you get the idea. Throw in the fact that I've never been to Coney Island, and I have a plan.

Instead of a glorious multi-state RoadTrip, this year I'm going Island Hopping -- all within commuting distance of my back stoop!

I'm doing the research, getting my shoes broken in, my blisters converted to calluses, making sure I have camera batteries, and a traveling buddy ... and so my first island destination of summer 2012 was a ....

TRAFFIC ISLAND!

Oh hush. Look, I know it could be called a rotary, a round-about, a traffic circle, or whatever.... But is there, or is there not, an island in the middle of that roadway? Yes. There is.

To some people a rotary, round-about, traffic circle, traffic island, what have you, is a scarey, intimidating, bizarre destination that needs careful navigating. This one, in Mount Vernon, NY, is near a gateway to an exotic, foreign land. Parts of it certainly were for me ... Once visited, never to return -- even with a native guide.

Stay tuned.