1. The ferry to Governors Island was shorter than I had expected, the distance over the water maybe a half mile. I went on a weekday with a group of work colleagues as part of a non-mandated 'team-building' experience. Having organized the trip ourselves, the itinerary was relatively unstructured: 1) go to Governors (no apostrophe) Island, 2) eat lunch, and 3) return from Governors Island.
2. Governors Island feels like another world, or another century, the landscape dotted with disused buildings and forts, some rehabilitated and some not.
3. Blissfully, there are no privately owned cars racing around terrorizing pedestrians and bikers. If you've ever tried to imagine what Manhattan might look like if we limited the amount of private car storage on the sides of our streets, here's your answer.
4. It was a very hot day -- mid-nineties with high humidity -- but we found a breeze at the tip of the island, which is covered in lawns dotted with Adirondack chairs.
5. There are two hills, beautifully landscaped, in the middle of the island, which offer views of the city and harbor.
6. The white tents in the foreground can be rented for overnight 'glamping,' which I might recommend if you were visiting New York City and wanted to avoid 'the hordes.'
7. In the afternoon, the skies turned dark as a storm rolled in over the sea.
8. We took shelter in the glamping bar/restaurant, which is open to the public. Securing the flaps of the tent in the lashing rains felt like being on a schooner. Or it did until we had settled in with our gin-and-tonics.
9. When the storm ended, we turned into seagulls and flew away.
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