Coney Island: September

Right now it's full-speed ahead to fall and then magical snow and then mutant piles of ice and trash that in some places probably haven't even fully melted from last winter. This summer whizzed by, as time is fond of doing now that I'm old, and it seems like just yesterday we were eating hot dogs with our gloves on celebrating a very chilly opening day at Coney Island.

We made it back a few months later, and although Coney Island doesn't officially close until after Halloween, it felt like a little goodbye to summer. It was still very hot and we sipped a soda from Nathan's, got our fortunes told by Grandma, rode the Wonder Wheel, walked the boardwalk, browsed the Phoenicia Flea and saw the Coney Art Walls.

There were hints that the season is coming to a close—t-shirt sales, premature Halloween decor, a chilly breeze at the top of the Wonder Wheel—but I'll never tire of seeing Coney Island in any season. We passed up the line outside of the new Wahlburgers location (is it that good?) for pizza at Totonno's, and I was thrilled to finally cross it off my list of classic pizzas to try. It was really good—maybe not totally worth the long wait and shoddy service—although it was the perfect end to a perfect day in the perfectly imperfect Coney Island.