My Summer Solstice Adventure: Dawn

Roar! Yesterday was the summer solstice and, like the winter solstice, I decided to spend the longest day of the year outside exploring the city. 

I started the day by watching the sun rise on my roof. It was so pretty! It's not everyday you get to see a sunrise like this. Roar!

Here you can see the light changing on the Manhattan skyline and the sun reflecting off the buildings. What a beautiful sight!

Next, I stepped outside to have an early morning bike ride through my neighborhood of Bushwick. It turned out the paperboy was on his way down the street. He was so surprised to see a T-Rex, I hope he doesn't call it quits! Roar!

After riding through Bushwick, I headed down Grand Street to Rust Street and cut over along the Queens border to the site where Furman's Island used to be. Here I am looking across the tracks to what used to be the site of one of the worst ecological disasters of the 19th century.

Furman's Island was originally a dumping ground for all the human waste from the city. Gross! Then Peter Cooper opened his glue factory on the island so it was full of horse carcasses waiting to be boiled down into glue. Double gross! Here I am looking out over Maspeth Creek, an offshoot of Newtown Creek, that used to go all the way around Furman's Island.

Now the area that used to be Furman's Island is full of food distribution warehouses including the likes of Freihofer's Cookies, Apple and Eve (their slogan is really amusing, roar), and Grandpa's Original Yogurt Muffins! Yum!

The Department of Sanitation now has a garage here which I find really amusing. Roar!

Here I am looking out over what's left of the old wooden plank bridge that crossed Newtown Creek and connected Brooklyn with Furman's Island. 

The water around the island is still really polluted! Once, when the mayor of Brooklyn came with an inspection committee to Furman's Island, they had to quit when they weren't even half done because the smell was so bad. 

Next, I headed back across the tracks to continue on my way. Only this time a train was coming. Choo! Choo!

After seeing all those food distribution warehouses I was feeling a bit hungry. Luckily, across the street from the train tracks was the Clifton Diner. This is the very same diner they filmed parts of the movie Goodfellas in! I sure hope no one asks me to "whack" anyone!

Roar! I was so hungry I forgot to take pictures of the food before I ate it all! I had French toast with bacon, sausage, pickles, and coleslaw! It was so nice to have a big meal before I continued with my day.

A Visit to English Kills

Roar! Today I rode over to check out English Kills, an offshoot of Newtown Creek that runs into my neighborhood of Bushwick. It can be found at the end of the train tracks that cross Morgan Ave. It’s a pretty neat place visit even though it’s pretty polluted and a little bit shady.

Here I am on the bridge overlooking English Kills. There is a ton of sweet graffiti out here. I guess this is a really good spot to put up some art. Roar!

The train tracks are closed during the day, so I’m just going to enjoy all the scenery while I can.

Well, maybe not all the scenery. Roar!

Newtown Creek was recently declared a Superfund Site by the EPA. A lot of the pollution feeds into the creek from offshoots like English Kills. There was a story a while back about a great detergent leak under Bushwick. All the detergent leaked into English Kills so at least Bushwick is trying to help clean up the creek!

I threw up a sticker on this box. Maybe I’ll do some painting later as well. English kills is a pretty cool site. I definitely recommend checking it out if you’re walking down Morgan Ave.