No Stress Vacations Are Perfect, and a Sunset to Boot!

What kind of amenities do you look for when you travel?  If you ask me, I need a clean and quiet room.  No bugs.  Close to the water and restaurants.  That’s pretty much it.  Now, if I’m in Las Vegas or the Bahamas, that’s a whole other set of priorities and expectations except for the a fore mentioned amenities, but on a more luxurious scale. We were interested in getting away to change our scene as close as possible with the least amount of stress involved.  This was perfect.

In little towns like Southold and Greenport you can’t expect luxury.  This is farm country, wine country, old maritime fishing villages.  You’re not getting luxury here.  Maybe the Bed and Breakfasts are a little more plush, but don’t expect too much.  I certainly don’t.  Like I said before, clean and beach is what I need, and what I got.  The Long Island Sound was so clean and clear this year it was a pleasure to be so close to it.

The rooms at this little place have efficiency kitchens, OK; they’re clean, OK; they face the beach, big OK; air-conditioned, OK; a short drive to a cool town for dining, OK.  Downside-the refrigerator went on and off all night, the road out front was noisy with traffic all night, an illuminated EXIT sign inside the room (code) was lit up all night, the air-conditioner was either too cold, or when turned off the room was too hot.  OK OK OK.

The one thing that made us crazy was a noise we figured out was a cricket in the wall.  It chirped at intervals with the refrigerator, all night long.  I wanted to find it and kill it, but we couldn’t do either.  So we decided we’d nap on the beach, eventually.  Seems there’s a lot of history here on the north fork of Long Island especially during the Revolutionary War.  Along the main road there are these signs telling of raids and war activities.  There are tales of pirates, too.

We visited Greenport for dinner every night.  Many restaurants there have outdoor dining and a few are right on the docks.  Boats large and small can pull up to the docks of the marinas and stay for dinner or moor for the night.  When the weather is good it’s a beautiful place.

We had great food at Claudio’s Clam Bar right on the water, surrounded by boats, the water, Shelter Island across the bay and the most beautiful sunset you could imagine.  As I’m not so great at remembering to take pictures of everything, we were half way done with dinner before I thought about it!  We really enjoyed the freshest seafood around.  After dinner we walked around Greenport investigating all the boats docked at the piers, window shopped at the antiques and quaint shops, listened to jazz at a gelato and dessert bar.  The sun was setting so spectacularly that we had the great idea to grab some coffee to-go and run back to our hotel to have the amazing apple tart we bought on our way from Briermere farm.  Dessert and coffee, the beach and the setting sun were the perfect end to a perfect day.

Of course I remembered to take a picture of the apple tart.  Wouldn’t you?