'Allo Gov'na

Off the southern tip of Manhattan is a little spot of land called Governor's Island. One lazy summer Saturday, Noah and I cut across the park and hopped aboard the ferry. (The pre-boarding survey was awesome. "How did you get here?" On foot. "How do you plan to get home?" Also on foot...? Maybe they're used to visitors from more exciting locales than across the street.)Don't get me wrong, I really loved this place - but Gov's has the makings for the set of horror movie.

Used as a military facility by British and American forces for more than 200 years, the place has essentially been deserted for the last 15 years. As in, looks like people just up and left, deserted. (That's probably not dramatic enough - deserted usually means up and left, I suppose.) As in, tapestries still hanging on the church walls and didn't drain the toilets, up and left, deserted.

After I got over the initial eeriness of its desertion, I quickly moved on to the realization that there are houses - full on neighborhoods with full. on. houses. - just the tiniest stone's throw away from Manhattan. I was already hatching a plan to move into one of those houses (the ultimate fixer-upper) when Noah reminded me of the logistical catastrophe that would be home improvement projects on a tiny island that was otherwise deserted and only reachable by ferry. Plus, there is always the inconvenient detail - not for sale.

We made a loop around the island (well, no - we made an erratic path around the island that looked like one of those Family Circus cartoons) and eventually came to the hammock grove. The grove of hammocks... and Adirondack chairs. The former were full, the latter were not. And so, we enjoyed a nice sit.

Somewhere in the process of our outing we snapped this shot of the skyline, including our building. Not sure what happened to make it turn out this way - but I'm a fan!