Gone to Governors

Summer is here! I always feel like the kick-off of summer in the city is the start of the free concerts! This weekend, Seth and I headed out to Governors Island (for the first time! Love the weekend of firsts!) to see Yeasayer at the first free concert of the summer. Gone to Governors Live Music series has quite a few concerts planned for the summer season, and we Must return for another after all the fun we had at last night's!

Seth and I joined our good friends Chelsea and Scott, which guarantees a night of once in a lifetime memories!! We got in line for the ferry from lower Manhattan just before it blew up. Once in line, we found out they weren't allowing any food on the ferry. So we started shoving food in our mouths from the picnic we had brought and sharing whatever we couldn't finish with people in line around us!

The ferry was a quick ride, considering Governors Island is so close to Manhattan (even closer to Brooklyn, but they don't have the ferry running for concerts yet.)
When we arrived, we found a spot on the "beach" to lay out our sheet and relax while waiting for the show to start. Drinks and talking and laughing took place as the sun set behind us.

The sun is heading down.

Passing the time playing hacky sack.

The show was great fun! We didn't really know the bands, but live music is almost always great. And the view of the city, the crowd surrounding us, the perfect warm summer night...!!


After the show, we headed with the masses towards the ferry. Being a part of the mob of people wasn't quite where I wanted to be, and we were definitely waaay too far back in the crowd to make the first ferry. Standing in that crowd for another 40 minutes sounded like a horrible idea when the beach was just a few steps back through the crowd. So I convinced the crew to return to the beach to wait for the next ferry. We got one last round of drinks and laid the blanket back out. The crowd had thinned quite a bit and there was enough room for a handstand contest... It started between Seth and Scott and the loser ended up with a volcano mound of sand on his stomach. Soon, we had more joining us! It's a good thing the sand is a nice soft place to fall! These boys were tumbling all over the place. Some very resourceful guys started a game of T-ball using a coconut and part of a fence divider, and Chelsea and I joined the game.

The next ferry arrived, and security pushed us off the island. Once on the ferry, we joined all the people on the bottom floor where cars are usually loaded. A group of the people that we'd been "playing with" on the beach had started a beat circle (much like a drum circle) with dancing, clapping, and yelling. It was intense and fun. Before long, we'd all joined in and there were about 20 people clapping and jamming and dancing on the ferry! I videoed of moment of it as it was starting using my iphone. The whole experience was awesome, something that couldn't be planned, something intense and unique!

And to top off the night, when we reached the subway platform, we pulled out our beach blanket and settled onto it while waiting for our ride home :) Luckily the only other people there were all coming from the show and no one minded a bit.

O and there were bubbles :) Essential for a perfect night!