A Little Adventure in Brooklyn

I learned recently that my husband's grandfather was married in a church in Brooklyn, so yesterday we mapped a path to find it. But the entire subway system in Manhattan was shut down! Why? We never found out. It was shut down the entire day! I can't imagine how this affected the city, but we found another route from Queens. We hopped off earlier than expected to search for a Best Buy and walked about a mile and never seeing one--thank a lot Google map. SIGH. 

We were so far away from our original destination that twice we grabbed a bus to civilization. Anyway, we did get to see the new Barclays Center which was having an open house. The great Barbara Streisand will perform there this weekend.

 

We tried to eat at our favorite pizza place, but the line was out to the street. When we got to the pier to catch the water taxi home, I snapped this shot of a bride and her wedding party. There were three other wedding parties getting their photos taken, but they were a yawn compared to this one. (We never made it to Paul's grandfather's church.) Another day with a better plan.

Tight Security

 

 

The United Nations was securly guarded by NYPD and the Coast Guard during their session last month. Anything floating on the East River approaching the area was quickly met by one of their crafts, lights flashing, and escorted across the way. One evening a huge helicopter used a search light to scan the river's edge right in front of our place.

BIG picture of the beach at South Hampton!

Finally, the Reason for the Road Trip!

 

How I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE the OCEAN and WAVES and SEAGULLS! These photos were taken at South Hampton, and as you can see, I got there when two large dogs were playing in the sand. They were almost as happy as me as they chased each other and the ball their owner was tossing around. One came up to me, and gave me a chance to throw the ball. So I got my dog fix in, too.

I walked around the beach barefooted for a half hour with the wind in my hair and the cool bubbly water sneaking up on my toes and rolled-up jeans. Then I took stroll on the rock pier. People were fishing at the end of it, and I also saw some men in water suits surfing. I stayed until I got enough while my husband stayed in the car. He's not a water person and could see just fine from his vantage point.

This was the highlight of our weekend in the Hamptons!

Long Island Road Trip More Bad Service

 

I told my husband the morning of our second day in "the Hamptons" I'd found a place to eat breakfast. I Googled the address and entered it into my iPhone. I looked at a map to get an idea of its location and STILL I took us to the wrong place! So I was angry at Apple, Google, and myself when we finally decided on this place in Bridgehampton.

Once again, the wait staff ignored us to the point of being ridiculous. When we did get our order in, I asked if the potatoes came with my meal, and the waiter snidely remarked, "Yes, that's what it says." I want you to know that I got SIX pieces of potato that were the size of a robin's egg! It was comical. Best part about this meal was asking the waiter's name in French and realizing he understood me. Ha ha!

More on Long Island Road Trip

From Greenport, we took two $15 ferries to Sag Harbor where we had made reservations at the American Hotel. The best part about this town was the beautiful display of potted flowers. There were some shops, but you could see they were beginning to close up, and it was still early on a Saturday.

 

Our dinner at the American Hotel was not great. When I asked if they had any specialty drinks, the waiter lifted his chin and said "No, but of course we have a full bar." Then my husband asked for a wine list and the guy dropped this, I kid you not, 3-inch thick 3-ring binder with a hundred pages of wines listed in tiny print. For that, we decided to not order alcohol. Our bill still came to over $100 for unremarkable food. We also were seated in a kind of hallway. Granted the place was crowded and small, but that could have been ignored if we'd been treated better.

Road Trip to Greenport

Greenport is located on the north-eastern tip of Long Island. The town was having a little street fair with arts, crafts, food and raffle booths last Saturday. There was a little parade going on that the crowd hardly seemed to notice.

The Scrimshaw Waterside Restaurant pictured above was recommended to us, but it wasn't open for breakfast. We found another place to eat then walked around the exhibits. You'd think a town this close to New York City would offer amazing arts and crafts at their street fairs, but no one was selling anything I hadn't seen before in the Midwest. Midwest arts and crafts shows ROCK! I'm just sayin'. (-: