And a very happy Labor Day

Yesterday, Ari and I booked it out of the house at 9am to catch the first ferry to Governor's Island. Only...we missed the ferry by about three minutes. Sad face.

So we hung out in Brooklyn Bridge Park for a while and goofed around on the wacky benches/installation art.

Then we caught the 11am ferry and tried Citi Bikes for the first time! Citi Bikes are the bike share program that's been in NYC for about two years now. I've never used it because:
1. It seemed complicated to figure out how to use it.
2. I am terrified of biking in most parts of the city, especially Manhattan.

But Governor's Island seemed like a good place to try it out. To rent bikes from the rental shop there, it was minimum $15 for two hours. But a Citi Bike rental (I found out) is $9.95 for an all day pass; you just have to return the bike after 30 minutes each use. Since the island is only 2.2 miles around, we could easily bike the whole thing in about 20 minutes at a leisurely pace.

Best action shot I could get of Ari and Lady Liberty herself. 

After biking around the island once, we returned the bikes and walked around the Pedestrian Only areas. There are lots of cool hammocks, but unfortunately, they are all located in direct sunlight (not a lot of tall trees on the island), so we lay in one for about 10 seconds before realizing we were not feeling relaxed at all. 

Then we looked at some of the art installations. I think a favorite of mine was this one, made out of old umbrellas, camera tripods, hub caps, and care tires. 

Awkward shot from a low angle--a little unflattering

After working up enough of an appetite, we got lunch from some of the vendors. Ari got vegetarian roti, and I got veggie tacos and horchata. Then, the best part: Blue Marble ice cream! I got Mexican chocolate, and Ari got strawberry.

We then took the bikes out for another spin--racing each other a bit, and trying to take some of the inner roads that we hadn't seen yet. The island is pretty small, so we still only used the bikes for about 20 minutes before returning them.

We caught the 1pm ferry back to Brooklyn, and got off to realize that we could either take the bus back to the subway, or try the Citi Bikes again, which were located right next to the ferry. We decided to bike to Atlantic Terminal, and it was actually pretty fun! A little scary to be biking in a bigger city (we still had no helmets), but we mostly took side routes that had a clear bike lane, and reached Atlantic Terminal much faster than if we had waited for a bus. Citi Bikes for the win!