Last night we took my daughter to Deno’s Wonder Wheel Amusement Park. It is a small segment ajacent to Coney Island‘s more famous Astroland. But, it seems to have more rides oriented to small children so I thought this would be a better way to go.

This is my daughter’s first real experience with a theme park. We’ve gone on rides before at a street fair, when she was a lot younger, but we have never taken her to a theme park before.

The whole Coney Island experience was the quintisenntial, NY experience filled with noise and grit. You had your usual suspects, over-the-top billboards hedging just a little too kitchy, loud amusement park noises, heavy crowds of people; young and old. More poor than wealthy, hipsters and ‘hoodies’ (typical neighborhood types), couples and families. It’s not something I would want to do everyday, but it IS a very NY experience.

my daughter loved going on the rides, the sites, the sounds. We even stopped at Nathan‘s famous franks. After all, you can’t go to Coney Island without eating a hot dog.

The addition of Keyspan Park, the house of the Brooklyn Cyclones has added a lot of respectability to a somewhat seedy Coney Island. I felt safe enough as there were enough police around, that I felt their presence always. I’m glad we went toward the end of the day, so the my daughter could take in the lights at night. She had the opportunity to ride most of the rides during daylight, and leave when it was dark. It was the perfect time to go.