Category: Long Island

Photos for Friday-Quack Quack

This pair of geese visited our service station the other day.  I guess they ran out of ‘gas’ and needed to rest.  The funny part about this was that everyone stopped whatever they were working on to run out onto the lot and gawk.  People immediately took out their cell phones to take photos.  Like they never saw a goose before!  It was an event.
Anything for a break!  I love New Yorkers, even Long Island New Yorkers!

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. 

Day at the Beach with Traffic

Living on Long Island, in lower New York State, affords those of us who enjoy the seashore, the wonderful opportunity to visit on a whim.  We live a fifteen minutes drive from the Atlantic Ocean and try to be on the water once a week in the summer.
Don’t ask me how many miles the ocean is from my house, I have no idea.  Here we measure distance by time of travel.  In fact, signs have recently been posted on our parkways that give a digital readout for drivers how many minutes it will take to get to a destination. 
I’ve visited upstate New York many times and no one there ever says how long it takes to get anywhere.  They tell you the miles and when I’d ask the minutes they’d look at me as if I had two heads.  Well, there’s no traffic upstate, unless you’re stuck behind a tractor or cows are crossing the road. 
On Long Island there’s traffic.  Serious traffic.  Parking lot traffic.  You can be stuck in traffic that, if you wanted you could get out of your car and talk to the driver behind you.  They could be passing out drinks and hors d’oeuvrs and having a party kind of traffic.  So many people descend on Long Island in the summer heading to the beaches that the fifteen minutes it usually takes me could turn into an hour of travel time.
Sometimes it gets crazy.  Sometimes the drivers get crazier than they usually are.  People start flipping out.  No one wants to be in any kind of traffic here.  Drivers can barely wait for the lousy red stop light to turn to green, how can they handle traffic?  Thing is, they can’t!
The alternative to taking the parkway to the beach is to use the local streets.  It’s nice, but that takes time too, but you sort of think it’s quicker.  It’s really not.  There’s lights, local people doing their every day thing, more cars than usual because they’re going to the beach too, but they live close enough to go locally.  And on the days that traffic is crazy on the parkway, all those same crazy people start getting off the parkway to use the streets.  Same craziness, same hour travel time.
We had a little bit of traffic this week on our way to Pt. Lookout beach.  Backed up for miles, I was trying to decide: Stay on the parkway or use the streets?  I felt that the cars were moving a bit, enough to decide to just stay on and take my chances.
Why was the traffic backed up?  Was the drawbridge up for a tall ship to go under? No.  Was there police activity (that could be horrendous)?  Nope.  Could be a huge pile-up, which did happen this week with tragic results which closed the Meadowbrook Parkway to the beach for hours.  Not this day.  No.  Two cars of drivers had pulled over the side of the road to consult their map.  Every car on the road slowed to stop and look at them.  What are they looking at?  Did everyone think they knew these people?  Did they think they were celebrities, which happens now and then?  What?  What’s with that?  What, or who, did they think they were going to see rubbernecking like that?
That’s Long Islanders, and New Yorkers, for you.  Gotta see what’s going on!

Artist Date at the Farmer’s Market

On Tuesdays in my neighborhood, the farmer’s market comes to town and I love it!  If the weather is as beautiful as today it’s the best.  I like to get there early, before everyone else shows up and buys the gorgeous vegetables.  The market opens at 7 A.M., but I never make it that early.  I try to be there by 9:00 for a good choice of different lettuces and spinach, which sell out fast.  It’s still early in the growing season for many items, but the greens are a big thing and they’re usually plentiful in the cooler weather.
Today I got myself together early and decided this was going to be my artist date for this week.  Just a simple stroll in the comfortable sunny weather to buy my produce and mosey through the stands to sample some cheese here and a slice of artisan bread there.  The vendors stay until 1:00P.M. and by that time it’s crowded and depleated.  Not for me, I like it early and empty!  The birds are still singing, not alot of people or cars whizzing by, a pure pleasure.
I bought the lettuce and the spinach.  The veggie vendor had red, ripe strawberries.  I could smell the sweetness before I saw them,  The fruit guy had fresh picked cherries and blueberries.  All great stuff.  There’s a cheese guy, a wine stand, a fish monger, a cupcake shop, a bread baker, and a plant stand.  Some days there’s a cookie baker and last week I met a woman who made her own spice rubs, marinades and BBQ sauces from Guyana.  I think I saw a booth last week with homemade mustards.  Most of the vendors come from the east end of Long Island and some from upstate New York.
Visiting the farmer’s market on a beautiful day makes me feel great all day long. 

Photos for Friday

Islip Art Museum, Islip, New York
(c)2009 DSThemelis

Visited the museum in October.  The grand mansion, with 41 rooms including a ballroom, was Brookwood Hall, built in 1903 by Harry K. Knapp.  What a grand place this must have been on Long Island.  Not too many of these left in good condition, unfortunately.
http://www.eastislip.org/Pages/Estates/BrookWood%20Hall%20History/Thorne%20Estate/Knapp&Thorne.htm