close to the water

Ride down along Shore Parkway Greenway on a perfect-weather day. First, down 3rd Ave., past car shops, colorful storefronts & polished old cars on the street. Look down cobblestoned side streets shaded with tall warehouses. On 2nd Ave., a group of men carry a stunned turkey out of a live poultry shop, lofting it above their heads and smiling.

When we get to Bay Ridge, we want to live there. On the 69th Street Pier, a view of downtown Manhattan through the sailboats and fishing rods. Children run on the wide pier and yell after each other to shut up.

Then the long flat path, curving around Brooklyn’s edge to Bensonhurst. The water sparkles under the Varrazano, all the way to Staten Island, a wooded Otherworld. How do you get there? No bikes on the bridge…Cars stack up on the Belt Parkway. We whiz along, happy on our red bikes.

We turn around after an hour and ride home with a tailwind, back past the men dipping their kites in the blue air, the women in scarves taking pictures of their children, inline skaters resting on benches with books, fishermen listening to rock on small boomboxes, and what seems like the rest of Brooklyn out to play, as close to the water as we can get.