At first, we were a little nervous about the looks of the place. It was a bit sketchy and we were getting some funny looks from the locals. However, the closer we got to the beach, the less sketchy things seemed. We dropped our bags and met up with our friends at Connolly's Bar, which had a lovely front patio area and some amazingly strong and delicious frozen pina coladas.
Next we headed over to the Rockaway Beach Boardwalk, where we sampled the new Rockaway Brewing Company ESB. I'm not usually an ESB fan, but I've gotta say, this was pretty tasty. Plus this cup was just fantastic!
We watched the surfers enjoy the last of the daylight, listened to a reggae band, enjoyed some great people watching and then saw an amazing sunset.
After dark, we went to Thai Rock for a delicious meal. While dining on their deck, we could hear the band at the bar next door playing some old southern/country/rockabilly favorites. Since three of the four of us grew up on that music, we knew we had to go check it out. The bar was called The Bungalow - a big deck on Jamaica Bay with a little tent for the band and a bar - and it was packed. It was a surreal experience. I've danced to similar music at a similar venue with similar crowds before in the south, but this was just a short train ride from NYC. It was perfect!
On Sunday, we enjoyed the beach. We chose to set up on the section of the beach designated for surfers because there was more open space - we just had to take a short walk to the non-surfing area to go into the water. The water was pretty brown & murky & seaweed-y, not to mention rough (which explains the surfers). As a rule, I do not go into water where I can't see my feet, but it was a hot day so I had to go dip in a few times to cool off. Again, there was great people watching from the mid 30s woman who put her bathing suit on ON the beach right in front of us (although amazingly discreetly) to the tiny Asian woman who kept trying and failing to take her stand-up paddle board out. I swear, at one point, the board went airborne and yanked her out of the water, back onto the beach. There were several women who appeared to be in competition with the "tan mom" from NJ who was all over the news a few weeks ago. At any rate, it was a nice, relaxing day at the beach.
As The Ramones said "It's not far, not hard to reach . . ." Rockaway Beach is an eclectic little community that seems to have something for everyone. We had a great time and are grateful to Thom and Joanna for inviting us out.
