Summer has officially arrived according to calendars across the country.  We decided to kick off summer by participating in a New York City tradition that started in 1983, the Mermaid Parade on Coney Island.  I had read about it a few different places and was intrigued, but we really didn’t know what to expect.

The parade starts at 1 PM.  There are tons of vintage cars (and any car that wants to play along) on Surf Ave.  We enjoyed a frozen pina colada at Margarita Island before finding a spot right on the fence on the boardwalk.  Half of our group rode the Thunderbolt while we waited for the walking part of the parade to begin.

This is one of the largest art parades in the country and people really take their costumes seriously.  There were so many colors and different kinds of mermaids.  The amount of children at the event made me a little uncomfortable because it’s definitely not PG13 (I’m talking boobs, butts and maybe a few other mysteries).  Here are a few of my “appropriate” pictures, but if you are interested in the crazy that really goes on – comment below and I’ll email you some of my favorites that I’ll keep off the blog… for now.

Also, if none of you comment that you want to see pictures, I’ll be extremely disappointed.  We had a great time watching the colorful crazy stroll by.  The weather was perfection.  We followed up our daydrinking party day with a nice little Sunday picking strawberries in Hudson Valley and watching the final 3 episodes of Breaking Bad – not ready to talk about that yet… or maybe ever.  
If you live in NYC, go to the Mermaid Parade at least once.  If you don’t live here, do it anyways.  It’s quite the experience.  Hope you are all enjoying what seems to be the favorite season of everyone… until fall is near.