The ladies of Her Campus at Pace set sail for Governors Island this past Sunday as our first outing of the semester! Not only did we explore new territory but used this grand opportunity to bond with our new members on our island adventure.
Starting off the day at 10:30 for an initial meet-up, we headed out altogether to the ferry. To get the full ship experience, we hung around at the rooftop during our short trip, feeling the breeze in our hair and enjoying the roaring waters.
Upon landing, we decided to explore the island on our own terms, rather than a concrete itinerary like usual tourists and to keep the excitement spontaneous. A must on our list was a group photo with our new members with Lower Manhattan as our beautiful backdrop. We encountered little surprises along the way; a small campsite with luxurious tents (glamping next trip?), rest spots with colorful beach chairs (for an E-board group photo) and Outlook Hill that includes a “granite scramble” for hiking (and a fabulous photo shoot).
After a couple selfies with the Statue of Liberty, the girls decided to rest our tiring muscles with some chill time swinging on hammocks. As much as we wanted to rock our worries away, our stomachs needed instant satisfaction and we headed to Taco Vista for some quick bites and refreshment by the NYC view.
But we couldn’t end there without exploring the art and history of the island. On our way to find the island’s art exhibit, we stumbled upon more interesting gems of the island such as Liggett Terrace where more food vendors were located, an art festival in the works, and bike rentals that became the peak of our trip. Renting out large tandem bikes to accommodate our members was where the real fun began that solidified the island experience. It definitely worked as a great way to quickly recap all the destinations we passed by and even the cherry on top as we chased down our other members through a high-speed bike chase while singing ABBA.
Thirty minutes and a painful leg workout later, we wrapped up out outing at 3 PM, boarding the ferry back to good ‘old NYC where we rested easy and returned to campus to enjoy the rest of our lazy Sunday. Here’s to more smooth sailing this semester!