Governors Island: The Hills

Governors Island is one of my very favorite New York City summer destinations. It's cheap (or free), and fairly quick/easy to get to, but once you're there you feel miles away from the city. I first went in the summer of 2013, and returned later that summer for the French carnival Fête Paradiso, in September of 2014, and in July of last year.

Just in the three years since my first visit, the island has undergone some wonderful transformations. About a third of the island was still under construction in 2013, and in 2014 a new section of the island opened, including the too-sunny-but-fun Hammock Grove. This year the remaining portions opened to the public and I was thrilled to discover some wonderful, new-to-me abandoned buildings: a crumbling service station, old military housing and a strip mall of sorts containing a hair care center, dry cleaners and commissary.

The southwestern tip of the island has been transformed into a new landscape known as "The Hills," featuring four, man-made hills, picnic areas, lookout points, winding paths, slides and art installations. The line for the slides was insanely long—as most lines in New York usually are—so we just headed to the top of two of the hills. The views of lower Manhattan and the Statue of Liberty are wonderful, and Rachel Whiteread's permanent, site-specific art installation, Cabin, is worth checking out.

We also happened upon a Volkswagen car show, which was something unexpectedly charming on a usually car-free island. It's a funny thing to have finally lived in New York long enough to personally witness drastic changes, improvements, demolitions, sad closures and grand openings, and I look forward to checking in on Governors Island for many more summers to come.