Today we decided to get a later start and do some exploring on Roosevelt Island. It was very cloudy and rainy for most of the morning and we started walking down the west side of the island toward the north. We came across a cool piece of metal art that was a few feet off in the water that showed how money and the real estate market were tied together. The views of Manhattan were pretty impressive with it being so close. Closer to the northern end, we saw "The Octagon", which was originally an insane asylum that has been added to and turned into luxury apartments, keeping the original octagonal building at the center. At the very northern tip of the island was a lighthouse that was still being renovated, so we couldn't go inside. The small park around the lighthouse was open, however, and we strolled through the grassy area. On the eastern side, we passed by the other side of the Octagon and got a good view of Long Island City across the East River. Next, we saw the Blackwell House, which we had seen from the Circle Line tour boat. Down past the Queensboro bridge we saw more grassy areas and walked across to Starbucks where our friend was inside working from "home" today. We got some coffee, said hi, and went to finish exploring the southern end of the island. Next, we came to a hospital that is being torn down to make room for a new high-tech college campus in the near future. Past this, we got a close up view of the old Smallpox hospital that we had also seen from the water on the Circle Line tour earlier this week, which was in various stages of ruin, but looked very cool due to all the ivy that was growing on the sides. At the very southern tip of the island was Four Freedoms Park, dedicated to Franklin Delano Roosevelt and his famous "four freedoms" quote. The park had long marble walkways with trees lining the middle as the walkways met at a point as the island became narrower. Where the paths met and the island was narrow enough, there was a marble landing with a bust of FDR, a plaque with the quote, and an open view toward Manhattan. We walked through the park, took lots of great pictures of the view, and went back to meet our friend at Starbucks and walk home with him. We went back to our friend's apartment and gathered up their kids to go visit their mom at work. The kids were very excited to go visit mom as we loaded onto the subway and headed uptown. We visited their mom and met a lot of her office-mates, then went down the street to Sylvia's, a very famous soul-food restaurant in Harlem. The food was amazing and reminded us a lot of southern style food. After our meal we left and went back to Roosevelt Island to put the kids to bed. We sat up and watched TV together for a while and then went to sleep ourselves. Tomorrow we're looking forward to a little time at the beach down at Coney Island!
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