It only took us most of the summer to make good on the promise of returning to the Hurricane Sandy-ravaged Rockaways, but yesterday we finally made it. And we weren't disappointed. After all the devastation I'd seen on the news, I wasn't expecting much. But the brightly painted boardwalk outposts and new paths and terraces were a welcome indication that the rebuilding is happening and it looks like things are going to be even better than before given a little more time. There were great new ramps up to the boardwalk, cool stadium style steps down and even solar-powered phone charging stations. In another year, I can only imagine the throngs of people here. But on a quiet Monday, we were practically alone. It was perfect.
Elisa didn't last long on the beach, claiming she was cold and tired. She laid in the beach tent for a while and then I finally checked, and yes, she was coming down with something. Oops. Should have figured something was wrong when she fell asleep in the car on the way there. But her energy for the first 30 minutes there was undeniable. That's how much the girl loves the ocean. When she wouldn't get back out there, we decided to head up to the boardwalk for a quick bite of lunch and then home. As we discovered last summer, having Caracas, a perfectly delicious restaurant outpost from the East Village, in the Rockaways is like combining the best of NYC--awesome location and great food. We ordered the standard arepas and some Ommegang beers and settled into one of the picnic tables to take it all in. Yeah, not bad for our first beach outing of the summer. Elisa couldn't be swayed by any of the lunch I'd packed, and I knew it was getting serious when I couldn't even tempt her with ice cream. We were off after I'd grabbed an iced coffee and two scoops with dulce de leche sauce.
Overall, I will say the beach is still a long way from being back to form. There are still large sections that are not yet open to the public, as seen by the red flag cordoned off areas. We had to walk a bit further down the beach to around 108th to be able to enter the water, and there was still a bit of trash floating around. Considering how overcast and foggy it was, we weren't able to get a good view up the beach, but I gather that it was the same all over. There are still lots of construction vehicles all over, and police and parks department workers milling around. Mostly, I'm glad to see that less than a year later, the Rockaways are on the rebound and that businesses haven't given up on the area. It's still well worth a visit, and I know if we were going to be around in August, we'd be back. Maybe in September....
EDITED TO ADD: On Tuesday Elisa wasn't running a fever, but complained of a sore throat. Took one look and thought I better get her in that afternoon. Yep. It's strep. So we're starting antibiotics and hoping Carolina avoids it. But by last night, she too was running a low grade fever. None this a.m. though, but uncharacteristically, she slept over 12 hours. Hmmmm....what to do. Wait and see, I guess.
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