governors island

After two years we finally made it to Governors Island.  They opened the island to the public a few years ago and we have been wanting to take our bikes on the ferry and ride around the island and two weeks ago we finally did. 

Governors Island is a little creepy.  It was used as an army base during WWI and WWII and then transferred to the Coast Guard in the 60's and in 2003 was sold by the US Government to the State of New York for $1.  It's a 172 acre island with everything from schools, hospital, churches and Castle Williams - that was once used as a prison.  Most of the Island has been preserved and is now open to the public during the summer months.  They are currently working on redeveloping the island but for now they offer a free ferry and the public is able to go over and enjoy the beautiful space.  As we were riding around Jason kept commenting how some of the buildings would be the perfect setting for a scary movie.

We were feeling ambitious and thought it would be fun to ride our bikes from the UWS down to lower Manhattan, take the ferry over to the island, ride around all afternoon and then come back on the ferry and ride all the way back home again.  It was very fun, but I will admit, I was having a hard time sitting on my seat on the ride back home:)

We weren't sure what to expect before we went, or if there would even be anything to do on the Island, but we were pleasantly surprised once we arrived.  Everyone rents bikes and rides around the island and it was so fun to ride around the perimeter and see the downtown skyline and lady liberty.  They had a ton of free events going on while we were there; free badminton day, miniature golf and we sat and ate our picnic while we watched people test out their skills on the free trapeze.  The weather was perfect and we loved exploring the little island.