This summer, I finally did something I've been wanting to do for years.

A couple friends and I rode our bikes out to Coney Island.

I do like that it has maintained some of its guzziness.

Yeah, I like that it looks like not nice.

And went to the mermaid parade.

I'm Johanna Mayer and this is Atlas Obscura, a celebration of the world's strange, incredible, and wondrous places.

Today, a summer afternoon at the Coney Island Mermaid Parade,

and a trip back in time to the Parade's early days after this.

I'm not usually a parade person.

I find them chaotic, too crowded.

But ever since I moved to New York a decade ago, I've wanted to go to the Coney Island Mermaid Parade.

It's not your typical parade.

There's no link to a holiday, no religious affiliation, no corporate aspect to it.

It's just for fun.

And for getting a little weird.

The parade happens right around the summer solstice every year.

And it's kind of like the unofficial start to summer.

The boardwalk is definitely where you want to be.

You'll have a great view of the parade and the ocean.

The parade route snakes along the main drag of Coney Island, surf avenue.

They pass an amusement park.

And once it gets to the oldest wooden roller coaster at the very end,

...