Yesterday was Sadie's 7th Birthday!!! Photos of the celebrations will follow. This post is concerned only with our impromptu and very successful trip to Manhattan Beach.
Yesterday morning, the weather was lovely and I was feeling a little sad that we couldn't go to the beach because we don't have a car. Then V suggested that I take the kids to Manhattan Beach via subway and bus. I was unfamiliar with Manhattan Beach, but V had done some research online and learned that it was clean and less crowded than Coney Island (the only beach I knew of that is easily reached by public transportation).
V needed to stay home to make Sadie's B-day cake, so I asked the big kids if they wanted to go to the beach and they were very enthusiastic so we pulled it together quickly and we were out the door around 9am.
It was a longish walk (20 minutes) to the subway, but once aboard, it was a quick ride down to Brighton Beach.
Manhattan Beach is way down at the far end of Brighton Beach - i.e., in a predominantly Russian neighborhood.
After the subway, while we waited for the bus, the kids posed with flowers and I bought some street food - PIROSHKI!!! I can barely contain how excited I was to find piroshki since my mom used to get them for me when I was Sawyer's age and I have looked for them for years in NYC only to be told time and again by Russian and Polish restauranteurs that "piroshki" is merely another word for "pierogi" - which is clearly wrong! Piroshki are savory pastries the size of russet potato filled with sauteed meat and spices and fried. Yum yum yum!!!
It was a short bus ride from Brighton Beach to Manhattan Beach and when we reached Manhattan Beach I was delighted to find it clean and fairly uncrowded and with very nice facilities.
The water was chilly and lovely and fairly shallow so that both kids could walk very far out without it reaching their faces. And it is sheltered by the Rockaways so the surf is very light.
Sawyer initially rejected the piroshki, but then when he got hungry he devoured one like a wild animal tearing apart its prey and exclaimed how yummy it was.
Sadie was a fantastic beach buddy. She seemed happy to be having such a calm birthday adventure with her brother. (Regrettably I didn't notice that little gap between her bathing suit top and bottoms and she sustained her first mild sunburn. But she was a trooper about that too.)
This guy played nonstop for 2 hours.
A little after noon we packed up our stuff and had a bite to eat at the beach concession stands, then we got the bus back up to Brighton Beach. Brighton Beach Blvd. is situated beneath an elevated train track and has a very "old Brooklyn" feel to it. Everyone speaks Russian and the shops seem like they were styled in the 1970's.
Lollipops for everyone while we waited for the train. Then the ride home.
Sawyer fell asleep on my lap on the ride home. Once we reached our stop I ended up carrying this sleepy boy for over a half hour. It was a pleasure!
Sadie was a delight and super excited to get home and see the cake mommy made her and to see her uncle Preston who came down for a little celebration.
