10 Unusual Things To Do This Summer In New York City

Everything good, everything magical happens between the months of June and August. Winters are simply a time to count the weeks until the next summer.” — Jenny Hahn.

If life were a Kate Hudson/Matthew McConaughey movie, your New York summer would be filled with picnicking in Central Park, walking The High Line, and sipping frozen Hot Chocolate at Serendipity. Not to mention wind-swept kissing at the Empire State Building, or on the Staten Island Ferry. You romantic fool. You.

Everybody kisses in the middle of traffic, no?

But this is 2018, we all live in the real world , and besides — Matthew McConaughey has won an Oscar now.

Matthew says “Amen. All right, all right, all right.”

All right, all right, all right — yes there are plenty of wonderful things to do in New York City every summer. And some of them are not (yet) full fledged rom-com cliches.

Here’s my list of 10 unusual New York City summer attractions:

10: Outdoor Movie: Why stay at home re-watching Stranger Things on Netflix, when there is a free outdoor movie with your name on it. Grab that blanket, snack-of-choice, and hit the parks. Thrillist breaks down all your options here: https://www.thrillist.com/events/new-york/free-outdoor-movies-in-nyc-summer

Eyes on the screen please.

9: Get Back To The Garden: On a perfect weekend — brunch in the West Village is super, Central Park is delightful, and Brooklyn is the hippest. But if you want some elbow room, and the most beautiful stroll in New York, go to the Bronx Botanical Garden: https://www.nybg.org/

8: Eat the best New York Slices of Pizza: You know why New York is so enticing? It is a city that attracts obsessives. Like the guy who stopped at every pizza place (slices not pies) in Manhattan, and chronicled it all on his blog. http://www.sliceharvester.com/

The Slice Harvester

7: Go Fishing: Fishing in New York City? Yup, that’s a can-do proposition right here in the big city. You don’t have to be a lounge lizard all the time in New York. Just ask two of the hippest cats I know — John Lurie and Tom Waits. https://www.dnainfo.com/new-york/20120730/new-york-city/best-places-fish-new-york-city/

John Lurie and Tom Waits have gone fishing.

6: Go To A Museum In The Prettiest Park: Set inside Fort Tryon Park, arguably the most beautiful park in New York City, The Cloisters, is one of New York’s finest museums. https://www.timeout.com/newyork/museums-institutions/the-cloisters

The Cloisters in Fort Tryon Park. Shady Lane, everybody needs one.

5: Leave Manhattan To See Manhattan: After a while living in New York feels like being at the eye of a hurricane. Your smack dab in the middle of beautiful chaos, but somehow you can’t really experience it. You’re too close. One of New York’s greatest ironies is that you have to sometimes leave it, to experience its power fully. Brooklyn Heights, Long Island City and Hoboken, here you come. https://secretnyc.co/8-best-places-see-iconic-nyc-skyline/

The view from Brooklyn Heights is very nice indeed.

4: Watch Minor League Baseball In Coney Island: Decades after the Giants moved to San Francisco,and the Dodgers high-tailed it to LA, baseball has returned to Brooklyn. Go for the Noah Syndergaard emoji pillow, stay for the fresh air and baseball.

Hello Noah Syndergaard my young friend.

3: Have a Perfect Lou Reed Day: Feed animals in the zoo, drink sangria in the park, and then later, when it gets dark, a movie too. If all you do is follow Lou Reed’s lyrics for Perfect Day, you will be well ahead of The New York game.

Lou Reed, having a perfect day.

2: Don’t forget The Bronx: We talked about the Botanical Garden, but how about The Bronx Museum, The Bronx Zoo, Yankee Stadium, and Wave Hill. https://www.tripsavvy.com/things-to-see-and-do-in-the-bronx-1612789

1: Spend Some Neighborhood Time: Spend an afternoon in a new neighborhood. Leave Williamsburg to wannabe hipsters, Times Square to out-of-towners and the rooftop bars in the Meat Packing District to the absolutely fabulous. You are going to spend an afternoon in a real neighborhood, doing real neighborhood things.

Try this itinerary as you sweep up the West Side of Manhattan: grab a Upper West Side bagel with lox at Zabars and go schmooze in Riverside Park, next commander a citi-bike and make your way through those beautiful West Harlem streets, then on to Washington Heights for a visit to The Lighthouse. Just as you get hungry again — finish with some Dominican food at Malecon, possibly the best restaurant for the money in all of New York. http://nymag.com/listings/restaurant/el-malecon-restaurant/

Convent Avenue, Harlem New York City.

The Little Red Lighthouse. Washington Heights New York.

Malecon — at 175th Street and Broadway — in a class by itself.

So please don’t be a stranger. I would love to hear from you. I’m even game to cross a few of these off my Summer 2018 list, if you’ll come along.

In the immortal words of Matthew McConaughey, delivered with a big smile from the Oscar stage:

Amen. All right. All right. All right.