Category: Freeport

Painting on Sunday

The weekend was pretty quiet around here and I had hoped to get many things done.  The Mr. had planned a fishing trip with his buddies so I planned to be home getting the house ready for holiday decorating.  My Sunday was set!  I even hoped to take time out to paint something for twenty minutes.  
The fishing trip was leaving from Freeport, NY, on Long Island.  Freeport is on the way to Jones Beach and very close, which was a plus to The Mr.  He’s gone fishing out of Montauk on the south fork and Greenport on the north fork, and every where in between.  This trip was a short drive to the boat, but then the captain takes the fishermen out in the Atlantic Ocean for three hours to the spot.  Gear, food, and men were ready for a full day.  The boat was leaving the dock at 3A.M. Sunday morning and expected to return by 7P.M. Sunday night.  All day.
I enjoyed a leisurely breakfast.  Usually I’m the pancake lady on Sundays. Now I could sit with my little breakfast, my hot coffee and my newspaper.  A quiet morning is one of my best times.  If I’m pancake lady I’m so busy making them that my coffee gets cold before I can enjoy it. This time, nice hot coffee!   I daydreamed of the day ahead, what I would get done, and what I was interested in painting.  
Since I was invited to join a new blog The Little Art Club, I thought I would try the theme “Candy” in a twenty minute time slot.  It would be just enough time to paint something as a start.  Ideas floated around in my head while I sipped my coffee.   When I was ready I headed off to paint for twenty minutes.  Heaven, and it was still morning! Later in the day I worked on this another twenty minutes. 
(I tried linking to the blog for this post, but it seems it’s unavailable.  I wonder what happened?)
Chocolate Wrapping (c)2010 Dora Sislian Themelis  7×10 Watercolor
Around 11 A.M., The Mr. called to say they were already back from the trip.  It seemed that another fisherman collapsed as they started casting their lines.  Frantically, the captain, his mates, and the other guys performed CPR to try and revive the man.  The Coast Guard was alerted and they tried to help, but unfortunately they were unsuccessful.  When the boat returned to the dock three hours later, they were met by the police, detectives, fire personnel, and ambulances.  The Mr. and his buddies had to give their names and statements.  Needless to say he was home early.

Out on Long Island

 The beauty of living where we do is the proximity to anything and everything.  Nassau County is a thirty minute drive from Manhattan, unless of course, there’s parking lot traffic as I mentioned in a previous post.  But it’s basically a short car ride away.  You want Broadway theater?  Easy to do.  You want fine dining?  You got it- either there in NYC or here, everywhere it’s easy to eat great food.  You want to go slumming in Astoria, Queens and have great street meat on a stick?  Yeah, twenty minutes (traffic excluded) and you got it!  No prob.  You want to see the ocean?  Grab a fifteen minute drive and you’re there.  Drive a little further away and you have farm country.

Notice anything similar in each excursion?  Yeah, you gotta drive there. There is mass transit, but who’s taking a bus to any of these places?  Nobody.  Bus travel on Long Island is dismal.  The other choice is the Long Island Railroad.  Commuters take it to work. Problem with the L.I.R.R. is that it’s only going east to west, any points on a straight line.  Can’t go north or south.  No subways on Long Island.  Want to drown?  No.  No subways crisscrossing the island.  Manhattan, Queens have subways.  Even parts of Queens further out near Nassau County there’s no subway stops anymore.  That’s where you have to hop on the railroad.  I don’t know anyone who loves the railroad.  It just does it’s job and that’s it.  So mostly we drive.

This weekend we met up with another couple for dinner in the fishing town of  Freeport, N.Y. on the south shore of Long Island.  It’s a fifteen minute drive for me.  Another five minutes or so and we’re at my favorite beach, Pt. Lookout.  Freeport is a really nice night out, especially if the weather is good.  People come from all over the area for the freshest seafood and a busy party scene.  And you could wait over an hour for a table, unless you’re real early for dinner. Think the Hamptons, but closer.  Way closer.  All ages mingle together to eat, drink, and party.

We had dinner on the water at Otto’s Sea Grill.  The evening was warm, they had a band playing happy music outside.  They have a busy raw clam bar. We watched the water for every size boat possible.  Some boaters pulled up to the dock to have dinner at the restaurant.  Patrons were dressed in shorts and bathing suits or dressier attire.  People watching is fun too.  While we were eating we watched this couple pull up in their boat, remove their bathing suits and change into t-shirt and shorts, in front of everyone having dinner on the dock!  Not a care in the world.

After dinner we took a walk down the strip to the water, passing by other restaurants filled to the brim with people having a great night out.  We did too.