[mrnyc]

nice to see the bx and city island here -- great shots.

as someone who works all around the city and in the bx for 25yrs i have been over there quite a bit, by boat, driving and by public transit and have probably dined in every one of those seafood restaurants for fun or various events. they are all hugely popular with bronxites. and by that i mean bronxites of all stripes. i know a few people who live on the island and it isnt very diverse at all, but for the record the restaurants are very much so and have been since at least the early-90s when i first started to get to know the place.

if you want to visit city island -- the way to do this area for a daytrip on your own is pick a nice summery saturday. start off early with a morning at orchard beach. then around lunch take the bus over to city island. there is no way to get lost it only goes straight down the main drag. get off at the very end. go into johnny's reef, which is first choice and where everybody in the bx goes and it is quite a fantastic ultra bx experience with nice views of hart island. then walk back to mid-island where they have weekend street sales/street fares and hang around a bit before you head out. it's an adventure to get there and makes for a long beach day, but its well worth it. viva la bx!