On day two of the New York Experience, riding the F train with my classmates and professors, brought back memories of when my mother used take my siblings and me on the long train ride to Brighton Beach from Queens. The Coney Island area is where my mother grew up. Each summer, we’d pack lunches and changes of clothes to set out on a pilgrimage, to her Mecca, at least 3 times in the sweltering heat. I loved it because it got us out of our stuffy apartment. Even descending from the El wasn’t different from some experiences I’ve had in my accident prone past. As the crowd made its way down the staircase, I was struck with a rush of vertigo and totally missed the last step and fell Pope John Paul II style on the corner of Coney Island Avenue. Thankfully, my Nursing classmates came to my rescue with sanitizer and Band-Aids to clean my wounded knee.
Walking on the boardwalk felt like a new experience as everything looked so different from when I was a child. We enjoyed a leisurely walk toward Luna Park to reach Nathan’s Famous Frankfuters (est. 1914; BG, 492), the home of the 4th of July, international hot dog eating contest, for a bite to eat. Lunch was especially exciting for me because, for the first time in my life, I ordered and thoroughly enjoyed a corn dog. After lunch, a couple classmates accompanied me to ride the Cyclone, which was one of my most frightening experiences on a rollercoaster (BG, 492). The thing felt like it was going fly off the tracks! As soon as the 1 minute and 50 second ride reached a complete stop, we hopped off and walked briskly to meet our group.
The next stop on our Brooklyn experience was the New York Transit Museum in Brooklyn Heights. Besides walking, mass transit was the most important mode of transportation growing up. I was fascinated with the lower level that is the final resting place for retired train cars since the subway system was built over 100 years ago (BG, 468). I got a kick out of the old advertisements in the different cars representative of the years they were in use. After we all independently toured the museum, we set out through the street of Brooklyn Heights and enjoyed observing life on the street on our way to the Brooklyn Historical Society. 
The Brooklyn Historical Society, founded in 1863, was originally named the Long Island Historical Society until 1985. This beautiful building holds artifacts and memorabilia depicting the history of this large and interesting borough throughout the decades. The Othmer library, located on the 2nd floor, is open for visitors to pour over archival materials, and learn about the history of Brooklyn and Long Island. Since I am interested in Civil War history, I will definitely return to this site as another place to study one of my favorite topics. 
We continued to walk the streets and passed by the Hotel Bossert and Grace Church and admired the well-kept Brownstones. By this time the group was pretty exhausted from the foot travel in the 100 degree weather, but collectively and bravely crossed the Brooklyn Bridge. According to the Blue Guide (p. 464), the Brooklyn Bridge was considered one of “world’s great wonders.” In 1883, it was the largest suspension bridge that crossed the East River, engineered by John A. Roebling. As I crossed the bridge I reflected on the reference, as stated in the Blue Guide (p. 466), about the two incidents which caused New Yorkers has to cross the bridge to safety. The first time was on 9/11 and the second time was during the last blackout on August 14, 2003. I wonder how it must be like as I approached Manhattan. 
Once across the bridge, and too tired to finish the tour at South Street Seaport, I joined some members of my class on an excursion back to Penn Station. This was a New York experience of fighting rush hour commuters, a large group of high school children and walking through a rain storm toward Penn. I must admit this was a grueling trip but I enjoyed every mile of it. My favorite site was the New York Transit Museum. I have to add, this class is made up of a great bunch of people who are interesting, funny and pleasant to share this New York experience.
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