We decided our first beach trip was to the relatively accessible Orchard Beach in the Bronx. Travel time was about an hour door to sand and included the subway and a bus. I tried to map it out, so you can kind of see the area. We started where the green bar says 'start' and ended up where the red bar says 'end'.
The beach is not on the open ocean - it is protected by Long Island, so it had no waves. The water was pretty chilly. There were hardly any kids playing in the water because of the cool temp - you know when the kids won't go in the water it must be cold!
It was a large beach with plenty of amenities (restrooms, multiple snack shops, gift shop, picnic area, and lifeguards) and clean sand. If you look at the photo above you can just make out the bright orange life guard umbrella. Instead of the Baywatch red we're used to in California the lifeguards are dressed in day-glow orange.
It wasn't as crowded as we expected - but the beach is only open from Memorial Day weekend to Labor Day weekend, maybe we were a little early in the season.
It wasn't quite a San Diego beach but it was clean with easy access. It's nice to know that even without a car we can still get to the water.
I'm working on sporting the big sunglasses.
