We took the PATH from Jersey City to 14th St then hopped on the F train to Coney Island. The whole journey from our apartment to Coney Island took us about 1 and a half hours, not too bad at all. I don't think we would have made it in 1 and a half hours by car, with all the traffic jams and driving around looking for a parking spot.
From the train station, we headed to the legendary corner of Stillwell and Surf Avenue. This is where Nathan's is located and also the venue of the Hot Dog Eating Contest.
The contest officially begins at noon and we arrived sometime around 10:30 in the morning. As you can see, the crowd was already pretty big and growing at a very fast pace.
We got a pretty good spot in the crowd, close enough to see what's happening on the stage. If we were just a little bit later, we would be standing way at the back and would have to watch it on the jumbotron. Being there with the crowd was just so electrifying. There were live performances, music, people dancing everywhere, beer....it was just a huge street party! I even got hit on the shoulder by a flying beer can! :P
They were pretty good with security too. You can see cops standing on every street corner as well as cops stationed on the rooftops.
There were all kinds of acts before the main event. Check this guy out, he holds the world record for all kinds of trampoline jumps. He can jump on skis, on a snowboard, while jumping thru a hula hoop..all kinds of tricks. They also had performances by the Ringling Bros Circus, the Coney Island Strong Man as well as a hot dog eating contest for kids. It's not how fast or how many dogs you can eat. It's a neatness contest. Using only one hand, the kids must try their best to eat a hot dog without squirting the mustard and ketchup out or messing up their mouth. Hahaha! In the end, every kid was a winner (of course!).
At noon, the whole event was cut live on ESPN and was broadcasted nationwide. They started off by swearing in all the judges.
Check out the ESPN cam! They zoomed in on us quite a number of times. If you were watching the event on ESPN, you would have seen us on TV! :P
After a long and exciting wait, the contest officially began! You can see Joey Chestnut (10th from right) and Takeru Kobayashi (9th from right) stuffing their faces with hot dogs. Last year, it ended with a tie of 59 hot dogs in 10 mins. Chestnut won after after going into overtime. It was also neck and neck this year. It's amazing to see them stuff two hot dogs at once in their mouth..hahha! At last, Joey Chestnut was declared winner with 68 hot dogs in 10 mins!! Not only did he beat last years record, he also broke the world record of 61 hot dogs in 12 mins! So, once again...USA held on to the great Mustard Belt, for another year. Don't be sad Japan, there is always next year! :P
After the contest, we headed out to the boardwalk to walk around. The ever popular Sideshows by the Seaside was raking in a lot of visitors but we were not really interested to see 'death defying' freak shows :P
There were super long lines for all the rides, especially the Wonder Wheel. I guess we would have to come back sometime at the end of summer, when there is not so many people.
The boardwalk was also packed with people. Lines for all the concession stands were extra long and all the seaside cafes were filled with people. Thank goodness there was a Coke booth giving out free cans of Coke Zero. I would have fainted from dehydration if I had to stand in line with all those people just to get a drink.
If you think the boardwalk was bad, check out the beach!! I can't even see where the Atlantic Ocean hits the shoreline, cos there were just so many people! I wonder if it's so pack every weekend during the summer time or it's just extra packed cos it's the 4th of July weekend.
After hanging out in Coney Island for a few hours, it was time to leave. My face was burning from sun burn. We are usually very good when it comes to sunblock, but I guess we totally forgot how hot it can be and left home without it. To make matters worse, we couldn't really feel the heat, cos there was a strong cool sea breeze and it wasn't humid. If you think my face is red, you should see Kevin's. It's so bad til he didn't even want to take photos. Actually, his sunburn is very very bad. As of yesterday, he was hurting all over and even had some blisters on his nose. That's a sign of it being a 2nd degree burn. We will monitor his sunburn and if it doesn't get better in the next few days, we will have to take him to the doctor :( We did take a few photos of our sunburn after we got home. However, Kevin doesn't want me to post that photo up on the blog (he said he looks terrible). If you really want to see how bad and red we are, email me! I will send you the pic :P
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