A Long Awaited Visit

We'd been waiting months for September 15 to arrive knowing it would bring brother Bruce to Cutchogue.    I'd asked Bruce what he would like to do and eat and he said he'd just be happy being here but might be  interesrted in a BLT with one of our tomatoes.  As the date neared a couple of tomatoes ripened, nicely coinciding with the arrival of four different smoked bacons from Oscar's Smokehouse in Rhinebeck, New York, the bread and lettuce wouldn't present any problems.  Amy had taken Thursday and Friday off so we both picked up Bruce at Laguardia and headed straight to the North Fork.  There was so much to talk about!  For breakfast Friday morning we had eggs benedict with smoked Canadian bacon which went down well.   Among other activities Amy took us on a tour along the east side of East Creek, an area known as Fisherman's Beach, then down to near the end of Nassau Point.  We walked on from where the road ended.  There were pieces of beach stairs that had come undone during the storm and lay at rest on the point along with other wood come ashore.  Further on a juvenile sand shark had beached... I'm not sure why they do that, we've seen it before.  Bruce attempted to pick it up twice and it wanted no part of it, but the third time it went docile and I took a picture of them,  cool no?

Sharkmaster

Wave action created a vein of golden sea shells in the sand which someone fashioned with beach rock into an altar or cairn of some sort.  Bruce and we added our own stones.  It's nice to affirm the thought.

The point gets a fair amount of weather so the pines on the perimeter have to

 cling to the sandy soil as best they can.

Friday afternoon a little after four Bruce and I headed over to the ice cream shop "Scoops" in the village to await the arrival of Paul on the Hampton Jitney.  Back at home we relaxed in the shade then did a small tour of the things that had changed this year around the house with a stop to sample ripe cherry tomatoes off the vine.  The evening was spent in the living room yakking away as Bruce and I shared a few hands of play money poker on line.

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When Bruce comes to visit we always enjoy some time fishing together.  We've fished down at the East Creek inlet, on the Peconic Bay, Long Island Sound, the Mattituck Inlet Breakwater and the Shinnecock Inlet on the south shore at the Atlantic Ocean, an inlet created by the 1938 hurricane.  Saturday morning I was up at five checking the day's weather forecast.  It looked to be a bit rougher than I liked to fish in our small boat so I knocked on doors and rousted everyone to fish on the Captain Bob V out of Mattituck Harbor.  The crew provides the rods, tackle and bait so all we had to do was get aboard and wait awhile for our coffee and egg, bacon and cheese sandwiches.  A troop of Boy Scouts got served first as their ride, the sister boat, Capt. Bob IV, had no galley.  Wendy was our chef.

The Usual Suspects

It was a long, windy ride out to the fishing grounds, about an hour. 

We spent most of that time in the cabin with some of our motley crew 

of thirty or so fishers.

There was one crazy guy who kept 

following us around.

We fished several different spots on the Sound, mostly the very east end of the North Fork parallel to Orient and well within sight of Plum Island.  Baits of clam belly were used to tempt porgies with limited success so most of our fishing was jigging, reeling up a lure fast then letting it sink over and over, keeping it within 15 or so feet of the bottom, this in 45 to 65 feet of water.  It worked!  The four of us did as well or better than anyone on our cruise.  We pulled in some very large feisty blue fish and had the achy arms to prove it.

Bruce and a Bucket of Blues

A crew member cleaning some of the Kreider Clan Catch on the return run.  Those are all our fish on the table plus another blue and a big striper.  Back at the house it was like Cannery Row. Amy rewashed the fillets, Paul cut them into meal size pieces and put them in quart freezer bags, I removed the air to prevent freezer burn and Bruce did the labeling.  It was some time before I realized Bruce was writing really humorous labels, one or two inspired by Dr. Zeuss.
I know I'll chuckle every time I open one!  Amy and I like to eat fish once or twice a week so we're good to go for some time to come...  Thanks brothers!

  Dark horse, Paul, snagged the largest striped bass of the trip and came in second largest fish of the day's catch.  Here a crew member is taking his picture to post on their web site.  This was the first day of good fishing (several hundred pounds) after Irene blew through and they wanted folks to know the fish were back.  Amy roasted the huge striped bass in the oven for dinner.  We have an over-sized oven but Amy had to hack the tail off with a cleaver to make it fit.  I cannot tell you how incredibly good a fresh caught bass tastes.

Son of the Midwest makes good on the salt

Here is how it looked on Captain Bob's web site.
Not bad, eh?

Visit Captain Bob's web site for more shots.  Bruce, Amy, Paul and I are in two group shots on page two:  Captain Bob

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A little while ago we ordered an area carpet for the living room.  It arrived from JFK earlier than predicted and was laying, packaged on the floor.  After Sunday breakfast Bruce and Paul helped us move all the furniture, vacuum the wood floor and padding, lay the carpet and return the furniture.  Thank you so much guys!  It would have been incredibly difficult to do by myself.

After Bruce and I returned from taking the old carpet to the recycling center we had lunch.  Here's where the BLTs came in.  Good country bread, lettuce, inch thick slices of tomatoes and Oscar's smoked stripped bacon.  That and a big bowl of fresh fruit made a meal.

We loaded the luggage into the jeep and headed back to Bayside, first dropping Paul off at the 7 Train terminus for a quicker commute to Kara's apartment.  A little later Bruce treated us to a fantastic Thai meal at Eriwhon, a place we'd normally go to only for a birthday celebration. You're the best Bruce, we really enjoyed it!

Monday, after breakfast at Jackson Hole, I dropped Bruce off at Laguardia Airport for his long flights home.  It was so very nice he could come again this year.  I have many good memories to dwell upon from the bunch of us being together.