Governors Island with kids

This past weekend we took a day trip to Governors Island. This past weekend was a zillion degrees in the New York area. Therefore, It should go without saying, this past weekend featured an epic meltdown by B. She doesn’t really do intense heat, especially if, in that intense heat, she is forced to wear clothes with seams or hair on her head. If you were at Governor’s Island this weekend, and saw a 6 year old throwing her helmet and then her scooter clear across the bike bath, Hi! That was us. Say hi next time!

Eventually the promise of playgrounds and ice cream won out and she picked up her scooter and took off. There are no cars on Governors Island (ok actually I’m not going to perpetuate that lie, there were cars there. I kept reading stuff about no cars and thinking, really, no cars? But, there aren’t that many, and I don’t think regular people can bring them). This, combined with just the one ferry leaving the island every hour, made me feel comfortable letting them ride off on their own for a fair distance. We live on a curve on a suburban street. Cars whip around that thing like they’re on the flying swings at a crappy carnival: I’m convinced at any moment one of them is going to fling off into my front yard and my unassuming children. So, my kids loved the freedom of riding their scooters without listening to me yell at them to stay on the sidewalk or yell at passersby to slow the eff down.

Our first stop was Adventures. This area had a maze, a climbing wall and a zip line. While it was fun for the big kids, I’ll give you two reasons you might want to not mention its existence it to your children. One, it’s not cheap. I kind of thought we were looking at a mostly free day outside, nope. You can buy a combo pass for $22 and each individual thing is $6-12. Reason two, if you have little ones they can’t do the zipline or climbing wall. You can imagine how well it went when P, age 3, had to watch her two older siblings flying through the air, breeze in their hair, Manhattan skyline behind them, as she stood in a dusty, shadeless side area. She looked like the offspring of Pig-Pen and Matt Foley; she just needed a van down by the river.  

After that we hit up the water features at Liggett Terrace. I have to say, given our proximity to Brooklyn, I was kind of expecting a really cool splash pad, like a Rube Goldberg experiment with organic, locally sourced water. Instead there were two cement ovals with a bunch of identical water spouts around the inside perimeter. I don’t know if it was because we were so damned hot or because simpler is often better, but the kids had the best time! We had packed their bathing suits so they were ready to hop in. They could have stayed there all day: sitting on spouts, strategically aiming the water to spray each other and strangers in the face, classic kids’ stuff. The grown ups also enjoyed sitting for a bit and getting our feet wet.

Liggett Terrace is right near a bunch of food trucks. So after everyone was thoroughly soaked and cooled off, we headed in that direction. We sampled a bunch of food from basic pizza and hot dogs to kimchi dumplings and cuban sandwiches. It was all delicious and there was decent seating and shade.

Our next stop was The Yard, according to their website, “The Yard boasts 50,000 square feet of space in which [they] supply young people with materials for building, exploring, imagining and destroying.” According to me, The Yard is based off of the 2007 CBS cult classic “Kid Nation” -- I think this cult consists solely of my husband and me, but if you are a member too, let’s hang out. If you aren’t, this was a show where genius/monstrous producers stuck 40 kids on a ranch by themselves a la Lord of the Flies. Anyways, like the show, The Yard seems like a lawsuit waiting to happen. Kids are let loose in the not even glorified junkyard and parents are kept waiting anxiously outside a chain linked fence. Now, I am a strong believer in letting the children play, letting them get messy and take risks and figure out what their little bodies can do. But, that doesn’t mean my heart wasn’t all a flutter when I watched my 9 year old climb a 5 foot high Dr. Seuss looking structure (built by children), rusty saw in hand, with my 3 year old right behind him. Granted the recommended age is 6, but we already told her no in Adventures and it was freaking hot, ok?! I did find the kitschy, hand-painted signs with sayings such as “your children are fine without advice and suggestion” and "give your kids some space you overbearing weirdos" (or something like that) aggressive, yet weirdly reassuring, and I was able to breathe a little bit. Once again, our kids had a blast; we had to pull them out to catch the ferry way before they were ready. And, no one even died. Bonus.

To finish off the day the only way we know how, we stopped at a Blue Marble ice cream cart on our way back to the ferry. Perfection.

We will definitely be going back; there was so much we didn’t get to explore, including all of the historical aspects of the island. It used to be an Army and Coast Guard base before it was sold to the National Parks service, and there is an old fort and castle and tons of beautiful old buildings. Its history is much more extensive, however, going back to when the Dutch bought it from the Lenape tribe for two ax heads, a string of beads, and a handful of nails. Cool! Or not at all. At any rate, the kids can get their Junior Ranger badges by visiting Castle Williams and completing an activity booklet. Make this your first stop because it involves a scavenger hunt and other things that have you moving about the island. You can take a peek at it here to see if it is something your kids might want to do. We did this during our visit to Yellowstone last year, and I would go back to Governors Island just for this program. There’s also a really cool playground on The Hills at the far end of the island that we didn’t get to check out. All in all, it was a great day and I highly recommend going there.

Kid tips:

Transportation: If you’re driving in to the city, there is a parking lot right next to the ferry. You can’t miss it. Just put Governors Island ferry into your gps.

Getting around: Go to the info booth when you get off the ferry and talk to someone. There is a map you can grab, but unless I’m an idiot, it’s not that helpful in terms of letting you know where all of the fun kids’ stuff is. The people who work there are friendly and helpful. My super successful tactic was to ask them, “hey, where’s all the fun kids’ stuff?”

What to bring:

Blanket - lots of grassy areas to hang out or eat on

Swimsuits - not necessary, but if you think they may jump in the fountain and they despise wet clothing, always helps to have them

Towels - I like the quick dry kind, like these. They don’t take up a ton of space and they dry quickly. We use them all of the time for day trips and camping. Get some!

Water bottles

Sunscreen

Bikes or scooters - The different sites are not that close to each other and would have been a tough, slow walk, especially for our little one. Plus, wheels are fun. We didn’t bring them for the grown ups, but I would consider it next time. You can also rent them there, including those 4 seater Surrey bikes, which could be fun.

Carrier or stroller - if you have a very little one, I would definitely bring something to transport them in!