beach bliss

We really lucked out with our recent trip to Long Island. The weather forecast predicted thunderstorms each day we were to be there. We had just one thunderstorm, Sunday during the night, and the weather was perfect for the beach every other day!

On Friday, we traveled about 5 1/2 hours to South Jamesport, New York, which is on the bay side of the north fork of eastern L.I., to meet up with some college friends for the long weekend. Our group, 11 this year, stayed at a very nice family motel right on the beach. This might be redundant, but the name of the resort was "Motel on the Bay." It was clean and well-situated for a group like ours. On the map above, we were east of Riverhead, and the bay was extremely calm. The kids had a great time swimming in the shallow water, and catching, studying, and releasing hermit crabs. I enjoyed lounging around and taking in the sights, sounds, and smells. We took a visit to the Palmer Winery, and found a wonderful bakery nearby the Motel. It was a wonderful couple of days.

On Sunday after lunch, Tom and Matt and I headed to our friends' on the north shore of LI, about an hour west. It was great to see Susan and Steve and Sarah and Patrick. Susan is my closest friend and has been since we met in college back in September of 1983 and discovered that our birthdays were a day apart. Another college friend Laura, and her family, drove down to Susan's for the afternoon from Westchester County for another mini-reunion. We "hung out," ate, and enjoyed some laughs and libation . . . including Susan's fabulous lychee martinis!

We had an amazingly relaxing beach day at Tobay Beach (east of Jones Beach) on Monday. The waves were really active, and the lifeguards were definitely on alert. This was the opposite type of beach from the one we had just come from. Matt and Patrick were jumping waves most of the day, and when they took breaks, they were tossing the football on the beach. Susan and I took a nice long walk on the beach. There's nothing like walking on sand, in a misty, salty, breeze. It is completely replenishing, and good exercise to boot. The lifeguards actually closed the beach at 3:30 or so due to the "angry waves," so we only stayed a short while later and then went back. That evening, the adults went out to dinner at a wonderful Japanese restaurant. Mmmmm.

Yesterday we took off mid-morning and arrived home by 3 p.m. It was a beautiful day for a ride, and it was wonderful to pick up the cats at the vet and settle in to some laundry and just being home. I am taking vacation time until Monday, and have just a couple of projects to do. Other than those, and a birthday party for one-year old Lily on Sunday, I plan to take it easy and enjoy the great summer weather we are having.