by the beach!

Our staycation day 2: we finally got to the beach- kind of. We took a train ride down to Coney Island. My plan was to hit the Aquarium first, but as soon as we got off the train, Taiyo started chating, "Gohan, gohan!" for food. So we went down to the boardwalk and hit the first stand- which is actually my favorite spot. Just ordinary hot-dogs and burgers joint, but they got nice fresh clams. Taiyo ate all of outside of his corn dog. He didn't care for the dog itself. I asked him if he wants to down down to the beach, but his answer was firm "NO." He still dislikes sand, and he mostly avoids sand box in every playground. So this enormous sand box in front of him was probably the most fearful thing.

We went back to the aquarium and of course he had a blast! This is the must-visit place for kids, especially very small ones. There's so many little fishes they can see up close, or giant walrus who'd rest right against the glass, some knobs and buttons to mess with close to the floor- I often don't even notice them but of course Taiyo finds them. It's small enough and not overwhelming, and being indoor is also nice in cold weather or hot summer day like today. So we wandered between the tanks for almost an hour and half, observing many, many fishes, jelly fishes, turtles, eels, frogs, sharks, even a little aligator, then we decided to check out the sea lion show. It was so hot out, and the show was kind of sad with just one sea lion, and Taiyo was not impressed. He wanted to go. So we hit the boardwalk again.

There's another must-stop in Coney Island for little kids- Deno's kiddie park! Last time, about six months ago, Taiyo go on one ride, and he looked like he had mixed-feeling about it. But this time he ran right up to the carriage ride and said he must get on. Then one by one, he pretty much got on every ride he was allowed- a fire truck, choo-choo train, three different kinds of boat, a motorcycle, a jeep, an airplane, and of course the carousel. I asked him again if he wanted to get down to the beach- "NO!" In three hours we had the best of Coney Island, and by the time we reached the train station he was asleep.