It's a Ferry Wonderland

I promise this is the last post about Long Island. :) I thought I should devote an entire post to my very first ferry ride with my car! Since Nicholas was on a plane from Seattle the day we were meeting in Long Island, I had the pleasure of experiencing the ferry by myself for the first time. The ferry port in New London, CT was extremely busy at 11AM on a Friday morning. I arrived just in time to begin the car line for my ferry departure. Then I had to leave my car to go pick up my reserved ticket. Then I went to the bathroom. Apparently I dawdled too long, because when I got back to my car, they had already started loading my line of cars, and I was holding up the line! No love loss, though, because I jumped in my car and drove on the boat! It was a little weird. Then I locked up my car and went to the passenger seating area.

The ferry ride was about an hour and a half. The water was pretty calm. The annoying kids sitting next to me didn't stay very long.

On the way back to RI, Nicholas was with me. We were on a bigger boat, and it was 7pm, so we got some great sunset shots. I became an expert at spotting jellyfish in the water. We saw approximately 50,000 on our trip back to New London.

I'm On A Boat

Never thought that I'd see the day...

And flippie floppies were involved...until I lost them to a sea crab!

So, while we were in Long Island, the weather was beautiful, and the water was (relatively) calm. So we spent most of Saturday and Sunday on the Bohrer's boat.

Nicholas tried water-skiing.

Then he tried wakeboarding.

Then we rode on the tube pulled by the boat. My favorite thing (besides the wind in my hair) was just swimming. Although, I still have a knot on my leg from falling (2 weeks ago!) in one of the cargo holds looking for a bucket after swimming in the water.

Nicholas drove the boat.

I pretented to drive the boat.

We only saw one jellyfish out on the boat..but became an expert at finding them on the ferry ride back to New London.

Long Island Wine

On our way back to catch the ferry on our last day on Long Island, we decided to tour some of the wineries. There are a lot to choose from! I am sure you could spend several days going to them all. We went to the Palmer Vineyards, but the tasting cost money, so we declined. They did have a nice exhibit about wine, their grape varieties, fermentation, the bottling process, etc.

We ended up at the Dilberto Vineyard. You still had to pay for the tasting, but you got to sit down at a table, and they brought the tastes to us! It was a very small vineyard, especially in the midst of all the Long Island wineries. We chatted with one of the owners and relaxed. It was very nice! Go there. See Sal. Comment on the beautiful mural that makes up their space.

Road Tripping

We leave our beloved Rhode Island today. I came here kicking and screaming and was pretty much unhappy for a good portion of our time here.

Now, a part of me is leaving kicking and screaming. 2 years ago, I never dreamed that I would have any reservations about leaving Rhode Island. I thought I was a Texan through and through. I had never driven in the snow, let alone owned snow boots or a snow scrapper.

Nicholas and I looked at our time here as very temporary. With that in mind, it was hard to think about establishing roots. There was also the minor detail of Nicholas being extremely busy with grad school!

Somewhere around the time I forgot to lament not having any friends in RI, I found that I not only had friends, but an amazing RI family. So I leave here today with reservations that I will not see my RI family everyday, like I have grown accustomed to, but God Bless the inventor of SKYPE! I look forward to coming back to visit soon, and often, and having cross-country adventures with the Girls.


Please keep us in your prayers as we road trip down the East Coast with stays in Delaware, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Alabama, and an extended stay in Dallas, Texas before we make our new house a home.

Clamming

While we were in Long Island, we went clamming. We were just strolling along, enjoying the amazing ocean water. Jill was talking about how here sister used to find the clams with her toes, so we started digging. Here is a picture of me with my clam...the first clam we found! Technically, it was a joint effort between Nicholas and I. I had my toe on it and asked Nicholas to dive to see what it was. :) I was afraid it was going to snap at me!

So between the five of us that were in the water the first day, we found about 9 big chowder clams. The next day, Anna and David went with their grandfather to the pond to rake clams and found about 60 littlenecks.

Later, Nicholas and I went back out into the big ocean with Anna to find more chowder clams. The water was so clear, you could see them on top of the sand. No toe digging required!

For dinner, we (a.k.a. Jill's dad) shucked the clams and made linguini with clam sauce. It was so nice to feel like hunter gatherers and a great last dinner on Long Island.

The Hamptons

As our last weekend trip in New England, we went to Long Island to stay with our friends, the Bohrer's, who have a house there. I should mention that Nicholas flew to Seattle Thursday morning at 8AM, for less than 24 hours. He has a show put on by the Center of Contemporary Arts for young emerging artists. He flew out for the opening. Then he flew into JFK airport on Friday and took the train out to basically the end of Long Island.

I ventured out to Hampton Bays on Friday. I drove to New London, CT, which was about an hour drive. Then I took about an hour and a half ferry ride (with my car!) across Long Island Sound to Orient Point, NY. It was about another 45 min to an hour to Hampton Bays, to the Bohrer's house. I drove along the "North Fork" which was filled with wineries, farms and ocean views.

Shortly after my arrival, we took the doggies (Zoe and Toby) to the beach.

Toby has to wear a life jacket.

Zoe enjoyed "retrieving" toys in the water.

I saw lots of pretty birdies throughout the weekend.

The weather was beautiful while we were there! We were able to take the boat out both Saturday and Sunday to enjoy some boating, watersports, and swimming. More on that in another post!

After we left the Bohrer's on Monday, we took a drive to Southampton, where all the famous people go! We didn't see any famous people. In fact, all we really saw was a LOT of traffic! Then we drove back up the North Fork and stopped at a few wineries, which you will also have to wait for another post about. :)

We ended the day in Greenport before driving back to Orient Point to catch the ferry.

Ode to the Tulip Tree

I am a little late in posting these pictures. I was going to write a cute little poem about the beautiful tulip tree. It is one of my favorite things about Spring. The blossoms on this tree are huge, and when the petals drop, the ground is covered in "Spring Snow." They are beautiful, and my pictures don't do them justice. Enjoy!