A Visit from Bruce

I met Bruce at the MacArthur Airport in Islip on Thursday, September 10 in the afternoon. What a welcome sight it was to see him come striding out of the arrivals gate! This airport is likely the easiest to negotiate in the world and within 5 minutes we were in the jeep two parking spaces away from the very best parking spot. Bruce opened the thermos of hot Peet's coffee and we headed east. We'd planned to spend a fair amount of time on the water fishing but wind and waves prevented us until Sunday. In the meantime we did some surf casting on the Long Island Sound and down at the inlet coming up empty but enjoying ourselves. Friday we picked Amy up at the Mattituck LIRR station and went to Legends for dinner and had wonderful fresh seafood, etc., as Bruce's treat.

When Bruce stays with us we always have a meal of mussles and this year was no different. Saturday the three of us downed 4 doz. mussles steamed in white wine, shallots, garlic and butter. The mussels add their own juice to the mix which we mopped up with some crusty baguette. Oh, I shouldn't leave out the 2 doz. steamers washed down with cold Stella Artois or the lobster meal later on.

Sunday we finally got a good weather day, packed a cooler with sandwiches and trimmings and headed to Southold to launch the boat just down Jockey Creek from where Amy and siblings learned to find clams in the creek bottoms with their toes as young children, up to when Amy turned 10 years old when they moved to Florida. The sun popped in and out from behind billowey clounds as we chummed the bay near Jessup Neck coming up with a fish each, three different species but no keepers... that's the way it usually goes. Bruce was doing the driving. He took us over to Shelter Island to a sheltered bay where we beached, put up the Bimini top and had lunch. As the season was already at a close it seemed that everyone who could get on the water did, so there was a lot of traffic whizzing by in the deep water channels making lots of steep wake which Bruce negotiated admirably, nearly as fast as Amy would have! They have a kindred love of speed (note photo below).

I hope this gives you a little idea of his visit. I took very few pictures as it was just the three of us having fun. Did I mention that in the evenings we played a fair amount of poker with the chips first piling up on one side and then going over to the other, back and forth. We had a ball!



Channel Highway




Speeding on the Brine



Shelter Island



I

A Drive Down Memory Lane

We had our usual guests over the holiday weekend and were blessed with very nice weather the entire time. The water seemed a little warmer than the air which made for very satisfying swims. The wind wasn't too high to kayak and different ones of us took advantage of that. Joe brought his new camera so we got up at 6 am to catch a sunrise and see what the morning had to offer. The food we all prepared together was excellent. We ate every meal outside on the deck under the canopy and enjoyed playing games there and lawn bocce out back.

Saturday Tony and I drove to Peconic to see a car show. There may have been a hundred entries to judge. Each car was polished down to the nuts and bolts on the engines with incredible attention to detail. Now I've never been what you'd consider a car nut by any means but when I saw this old Buick I felt weak in the knees. Our 1951 Buick Special four door sedan was very similar to this car. It played a large part in Evan's, Paul's and my youth and Bruce and Frank very likely remember it well. I believe the three oldest of us took our driving tests in it parallel parking without power steering. I remember sleeping on the ledge behind the back seat when I was small enough to fit. I hope Mom will print out one or two of these photos to show Dad. I think he'd enjoy seeing them. Perhaps they'll evoke some good memories, maybe some funny ones too like the winter when (Evan, I think) drove toward the college with a pan of fudge on the front fender placed there to cool. It made it all the way to the big curve on route 15 where it was later found in the snow half way into the Beer's front yard if my memory serves me. Nice driving Evan!

Remember the tissue dispenser?

Visitors From the Great Northwest

Saturday, the 29th, Amy and I went to Laguardia to pick up Vivian and Stephen, then headed straight out to Cutchogue. This was Stephen's first visit so it was a lot of fun showing them around. Among other things we drove to Orient Point and did the circuit hike from the ferry to the point's end along the Bay then back walking along the edge of the Sound. On the way back to the house we picked up vegetables, a Catapano goat cheese, locally made chorizo and fresh seafood, ingredients (not the cheese) for Stephen's first ever paella. We all helped washing and chopping as Stephen browned the meats, added wine, stock, rice, herbs, saffron, mussels, shrimp, clams, I can't remember what all, topped by a nice piece of cod. After a stint in the oven it was ready and we sat down to a very savory paella with salad and some of Amy's garlic bread followed by a fresh peach cobbler. Yum!

Vivian, Stephen and I played two games of Super Deluxe Scrabble over the weekend and I got put in my place losing both by around 150 points. These two are professional Scrabble Sharks, beware! One game Vivian led off with a seven letter word getting the 50 point bonus on her first move, then Stephen showed his prowess laying three seven letter words in the other game. On Monday we went to see Coney Island, sample the foods, see the sights and walk the boardwalk (for Coney Island photos click here). It was all an amazingly good time. We enjoyed their visit so very much!