Coney Island: At Night + Fireworks

I've been to Coney Island more times than I can count, but until Monday I had never been at night. I'm not a huge night person—I go to bed around 10pm most nights—so it's rare that I'm still exploring the city when it starts to get dark, especially during the summer. We decided sort of last-minute to go to Coney Island for the Fourth of July fireworks, thinking that it would be more chill than trying to squeeze ourselves into a viewing area for the Macy's fireworks over the East River. Coney Island was still packed but there is a lot of space, so it ended up being my most stress-free city fireworks yet.

Coney Island is wonderful by day, but by night it's a glittering, flashy, bright, magical wonderland. All of the neon signs are beautiful in the sunlight, but they're really made to be illuminated. It was nice to see the Wonder Wheel and the Cyclone alive again, and it's hard to imagine that just a few months ago they sat still, stripped of their cars during the off-season

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Seeing Coney Island during a summer holiday was a nice counterpoint to the off-season or non-peak times in which I usually find myself at there, and where I'm typically annoyed by loud noises and crowds, I found myself only delighted at the energy of it all. All of the games and rides were up and running and I love that even in the days of video games and virtual reality, there is still a place in this world for balloon darts and "Feed the Clown."

The fireworks were lovely—long enough to satisfy my American need to see explosions, and short enough that I was in bed by 11pm. It might just be projection or a sign that my brain officially thinks in emoji now, but I could swear that I captured a heart-eyes smiley face in the firework above—do you see it too? Now that I know how beautiful the boardwalk can be at night, I want to go back and practice some long-exposure photography and I'm thrilled to be able to have an entirely new side of Coney Island to explore.