Word of the day: Borough
Comes from the Old English word “burg”, which means town or walled fortress
Intro Lesson:
Because we had to quickly get downtown to make the 11:30 Staten Island ferry, we made the decision to have the lesson en route instead of teaching in the classroom. Today’s word of the day is “borough.” The kids are all experts and were able to list the 5 boroughs quickly: Manhattan, Bronx, Brooklyn, Queens, and Staten Island. Throughout the season, we have visited 4 out of the 5 boroughs and New Jersey! We learned that Queens is the largest borough and Manhattan the smallest.
Staten Island Ride:
Today was the final bike ride of the season! Our final destination is Snug Harbor in Staten Island. We walked our bikes down to the East River and road along the greenway. We rode down the path to 82nd St., and then moved onto the street until we re-entered the greenway on 78th St. We continued on the greenway until we reached the big hill at the end of the next cutoff in the path. This hill was quite the challenge since the sun was beaming down on us and the hill was very steep. But we made it to the top!
We hopped on the larger bike lane and cruised through the street until we got to the next entrance of the East River trail on 38th St. We found a water fountain and restrooms a bit after returning to the the bike path. We refilled our water bottles and decided to aim for the 11:30 am ferry rather than the 11 o’clock one. After we refilled our bottles we rode to a Geocache nearby that even had a 2 dollar bill inside it! We still had a bit of ground to cover so we got back on our bikes and kept riding. There was a small area for off-roading along the way that was a lot of fun.
The closer we got to the ferry, the more tourists popped up along our path. There were several restaurants and shops which attract the tourists in that part of Manhattan. Navigating the final stretch to the ferry was rather tricky with all the people walking near us but we managed to make it without incident.
The ferry ride was super nice and we got to see the entire New York skyline which was hands down the best part. The part of the ferry where the cyclists stay was a bit secluded which is perfect in order to get the best view. After we got to Staten island we had a bit more to ride in order to get to Snug Harbor so we set out to make it there next. Riding through the streets of Staten Island was a bit tricky because of the number of cars on the streets but all the practice we’ve had this summer helped us get through. We stopped at the Unitarian Church of Staten Island and found a Geocache there. Then we rode down the street into Snug Harbor which was beautiful from the beginning. We rode past girls in their Sweet 15 dresses and camera crews which seemed to be preparing to film a show. Our first stop was at a small castle-like structure called Connie Gretz Secret Garden that had a maze in the back which was very nice. We agreed that the structure looked like the fortress where they kept Rapunzel in the fairy tale. We had lunch there and were able to rest from the long ride.
After a while we started migrating to a meadow nearby where there was another Geocache. We got to see some fish on a stream near the meadow. We headed back up the meadow soon after in search for some water. We passed several museums and visitors in the other other side of the site. Eventually, we found restrooms that we used to refill our bottles before heading back to Manhattan.
Our ride to the ferry went by a lot quicker than the original ride there. We got on the ferry soon after arriving and got to enjoy the beautiful view once more. We went back up on the West side and although we got a flat tire, the ride itself was very pleasant and beautiful. We cruised all the way up to 96th and rode through Central Park in order to get to the other side of the island. We made it to the school at about 5:10pm and were super proud of ourselves for completing the final ride of the summer!
Participants
Noor
Clarence
Samyra
Coleaders
Alberto Rivero, Cappy Collins, Lauren Lee, JiaMei Huang, Emera De Los Santos, Celeste Matsui
Special Guests
Meryem Masood
Ride Statistics
Miles biked:
Program time (hours): 8 hours
Ride time (hours): 6.5 hours
Calories burned*:
Water Quality Monitoring Results
Nitrate: 0.5
Nitrite: 1.0
pH: 10
Hardness: 425
Chlorine: 0
Lead: Negative
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