"I wanna be where the people are..."

"I wanna see, wanna see them dancing!"

Oh, and dance they did!

Saturday, one-day-pass-friend Kandis and I adventured out to Coney Island. When we got there we were delighted to find out that day they were having the 24th Annual Coney Island Mermaid Parade!!! I love parades!!

This is a painting of a mermaind eating a hotdog -how appropriate!







Sorry for the chaotic nature of this post. Blogger is being silly and at risk of losing my pictures all together (which is just incredibly frustrating) they will just have to be slightly out of order



Apparently, I learned on Saturday, Coney Island is where they host the International Hot Dog East Contest every year, on the 4th of July! We watch those eating contests at work every now and then - it is amazing to watch some of those people! The worlds record for most hot dogs eaten is 38 for the women's division, and 53 1/2 for the men's division!! The guy who holds the record is this little bitty Japanese man! Crazy!!


The parade was a lot of fun. It was long - lasting nearly and hour and a half. There were step dancers, kazoo bands, children dressed up like mermaids.....











Pirates doing really cool balancing acts.....

(this just adds to the debate that Pirates are way cooler than Ninjas....I mean, who ever heard of a Ninja parade? Boring! And look, you get a sword, and there are mermaids, and music..so fun to be a pirate!)


















Random: this is a picture of Coney Island and the beach from the super cool Ferris Wheel we rode before the parade started....












And a better view of the previously mentioned super-cool Ferris Wheel - the Wonder Wheel! What makes this one cooler than all the rest? The cars in the middle of the wheel? They are on a seperate track from the outside cars, and the move and shift all over the wheel during the ride.







And now back to the parade.

More she-pirates balancing real swords on their chest. Earlier they had them on their heads, but the crowd kept getting in the way of my pictures!










This is me, a real-live mermaid, and one-day-pass-friend Kandis - after the parade. The reason this is the only picture of a mermaid on this post (other than the children) is because this is a PG rated site, and most of what we saw by way of mermaids that day would not have been legal outside the confines of a parade!! We saw more pasties (or lost pasties) on more middle aged women than I really ever hoped to see. The younger mermaids opted for no-pasties and just merely painted themselves the part instead. And yet others just didn't even paint. It was crazy!!



But all in all - Coney Island was a lot of fun. I, of course, ate a hot dog. We enjoyed a lively parade, and I learned something about mermaids: Anything goes. Man, woman, child, old, young, fat or drunk - anyone can be a mermaid. My favorrite mermaid...ahem...merman, was this middle aged man, covered in tattoos (nearly full sleeves and a lot of chest and back work as well), with two little pasties! Like I said, anything goes!!