I ♥ NYC - Coney Island

One of my favorite movies from the 80s is the movie "Big."  Starring the much-unknown-at-the-time Tom Hanks, it's about a 12-ish age boy who is tired of being a kid.  So he and a friend go out to Coney Island where they come upon a Magic Wish Machine.  Tom's character puts a coin into the machine and makes his wish to become, well, big.   Everyone who is anyone has seen this movie and knows what happened next.

Ever since I first saw that movie I have wanted to go to Coney Island.

I've wanted to go there and find that creepy mechanical red-eyed gypsy woman machine, put a quarter in her, and make a wish that I  could be....small.   Hey, if it worked to make Tom Hanks BIG, then why can't it work to make me SMALL?

(Oh, how I miss my youth.)  

(I just turned 43 last week.)

(Forty-three!)

(Sigh...)

Anyway, that isn't the real reason I've wanted to go to Coney Island.  Because I think that whole movie was really just made up Hollywood stuff.   No one can realistically put a quarter into a machine and wake up the next morning 2 feet taller and 100 pounds heavier!

Duh.

(Actually, I recently found out that I can indeed wake up 50 pounds heavier and I don't need a magic machine to do so.  I just have to eat dinner at The Cheesecake Factory for my birthday and, somehow, I wake up the next morning 50 pounds heavier.  Or somewhere close to that.)

Frankly, I've wanted to go to Coney Island because I've seen pictures of it throughout my life and just thought it was SO COOL that an amusement park was built right on the beach! 

So on our recent trip to NYC, John and I made the subway trip out to C.I.  Of course the amusement park was closed for the winter, and it was all very quiet and, in a way, a little eerie.   But I loved it. 

Remember that New York City had just received the biggest snowstorm since 1969.  Or maybe is was 1996. Regardless, it was a LOT of snow.  Because of this, I had no idea the treat that awaited us at Coney Island:

An ocean and a beach.  But not just any beach.  This was a beach covered with SNOW!   With a snowman built right on the sand!  I have never seen that before and it was so. very. cool.


 

Apparently, Coney Island is the home of the world-famous Nathan's Hot Dog Eating Contest held on July 4th of each year.  Who knew?!  (Not me, but I don't really keep up with hot dog eating contests.)

So, in case anyone lay awake at night wondering how many days, hours, minutes, and seconds until the next hot dog eating contest, well, no need to lose any more sleep.  Just check out the gingantic digital countdown board that will keep you updated, second by second.

Check out the contest details here.   It is very entertaining to read about, especially the "Rules" section.



Contestants have just 10 minutes to completely consume hot dogs with the bun ("HDBs" in hot dog lingo).  Condiments are optional.  It all started in 1988 when Jay Green ate 13 hot dogs!  In TEN minutes!  Holy cow, Jay, you da' man! 


However, that is nothing compared to reigning champion Joey Chestnut who holds the record for 68 hot dogs consumed in 2009.  In. Ten. Minutes!   Check it out...

(I am a wee bit disappointed in Joey.  What happened to him in 2010?  Hello!  He only ate 54 HDBs!  That's 14 LESS than the year before!  Sheesh.  Sorry Joey, my opinion of you just dropped about 7 notches.)

Partially eaten hot dogs count and the granularity of measurement is eighths of a length (I took that sentence straight from the website - I don't usually use the word 'granularity' - not even quite sure what it means.)

There will be deductions for any HDB debris left in the mouth.

Only a few months left to prepare, people.  Anyone?  Anyone?