New York is My Happy Place

07/02/2026

NYC heat wave survival guide 🥵🌊

Top 3 NYC beaches you can get to WITHOUT a car this summer in New York City:

1. Rockaway Beach (take the NYC Ferry from Manhattan 🚢)
2. Coney Island (walk past the crowds to 21st Street)
3. Brighton Beach (food, boardwalk, and sunset walks)

If you’re searching for:
NYC beaches, things to do in NYC, Brooklyn beaches, or heat wave activities in New York—this is your list.

The best summer days in NYC aren’t about leaving the city… they’re about knowing where to go when it gets too hot.

What’s your NYC beach happy place?

06/16/2026

POV: You want a beach day but don’t want it to feel like a project.

If you're looking for the easiest beach day in NYC, this is it. 🌊☀️

Hop on the NYC Ferry, grab an iced coffee, spend the day at Jacob Riis Beach, discover a few hidden spots most visitors miss, and finish with one of the best meals in the Rockaways.

No car.
No planning.
No stress.

Just a perfect New York summer day.

📍In this guide:
☕ Best iced coffee stop
🏖 Hidden beach gems
🍔 Where to eat after the beach
⛴ How to get there from Manhattan & Brooklyn
🌅 Why Riis Beach is one of NYC's best summer escapes

Save this for your next beach day and send it to the friend who's always asking, "What should we do this weekend?"

Have a favorite Rockaway or Riis Beach spot? Drop it below 👇

06/10/2026

Most people visit Jacob Riis Beach for the ocean.

But hidden within Rockaway is a stretch of sand known as People's Beach—one of the most unique and beloved communities in New York City.

For decades, People's Beach at Jacob Riis Beach has been a gathering place for LGBTQ+ New Yorkers, artists, chosen families, and anyone looking for a place where they can show up exactly as they are.

This isn't just one of the best beaches in NYC.

It's a place with history.

A place with legends like Miss Columbia, whose memory is still celebrated each year with a beach walk in her honor.

A place where self-expression isn't just accepted—it's celebrated.

And a place that reminds us that community can still exist in a city that often feels like it's moving too fast.

In this episode, we explore the history, culture, and spirit of People's Beach at Jacob Riis Beach in Rockaway, Queens, and discover why so many New Yorkers consider it one of the most special places in the city.

📍 People's Beach, Jacob Riis Beach, Rockaway Beach, Queens NYC

If you're looking for the best NYC beaches, hidden gems in New York City, LGBTQ history in NYC, or unique things to do in Queens, add this one to your list.

06/04/2026

Which part of Rockaway Beach should you visit?

Most people think Rockaway is one beach.

It’s not.

Each section has its own personality, and if it’s your first time visiting, this stretch around Beach 96th Street is where many people start.

🚇 Take the A train to Beach 98th Street

🍽️ Grab lunch at Kimo’s, a family-owned favorite serving Greek and Egyptian-inspired food

🍦 Get ice cream next door

🌊 Walk the boardwalk

🎶 Follow the music

☀️ Spend the afternoon watching Rockaway do what it does best

This is the part of Rockaway where the boardwalk comes alive.

Surfers, families, musicians, artists, locals, and visitors all sharing the same few blocks of summer.

What makes Rockaway special isn’t just the beach.

It’s the people who continue creating the culture here together.

This is Part 2 of my series exploring the different personalities of Rockaway Beach and helping you choose the version that’s right for you.

🌊 Save this for your next NYC beach day.

👕 The Rockaway shirt I’m wearing is one of my own designs inspired by this coastline and community. You can find more neighborhood-inspired NYC designs on my website.

05/29/2026

Everybody comes to DUMBO for the skyline photo… but underneath one of the neighborhood’s most iconic restaurants, co-owner and artist Caralee is still painting inside a hidden studio surrounded by decades of Brooklyn creative history.

Before the luxury towers, expensive coffee, and influencer photoshoots, DUMBO was filled with artists living in abandoned warehouses nobody else wanted.

That creative energy helped transform the neighborhood into what the world fell in love with.

And somehow, inside Superfine, that original spirit is still alive.

Still making art.Still hosting live music.Still creating community in a city that keeps pushing artists out.

This is the version of New York I hope never disappears.

If you love places with actual soul, support the artists and small businesses that helped make DUMBO magical before the world caught on. ❤️

🎨 Artist: 📍 Superfine, DUMBO Brooklyn

05/27/2026

Everyone keeps trying to turn Coney Island into a polished “experience” when the whole point of Coney is that it’s gloriously unhinged 😭🎡🌊

The real soul of Coney was built by artists, immigrants, weirdos, performers, ride operators, small businesses, and generations of New Yorkers escaping to the edge of the city for one chaotic beautiful summer night.

That’s why I’ll always choose:
✨ vintage rides over replicas
✨ local spots over corporations
✨ weird energy over polished branding

Honestly? We need places like this more than ever.

🎠 Support the Classics
🌮 Eat local - Support the Small Businesses
🍹 Stay past sunset.
🌈 Come to our Save Coney Island Pride Event- Cirque Du So Gay on June 28, 8pm at Margarita Island

Because the magic was never perfection.
It was freedom.

03/14/2023