Because, you know, that’s where I spend all of my summer weekends. Hob-nobbing with the rich and famous, eating at fine dining establishments, proudly sporting my designer sunglasses, designer purse, designer shoes…
Just kidding.
I’ve spent exactly one weekend of my entire life in the Hamptons. Hob-nobbing with family and friends, eating home cooked meals, proudly sporting my LOFT sunglasses, Fair Trade purse bought at Whole Foods, $20 wannabe TOMS shoes…
And it was great!
After our adventures in Canada last year, my aunt, Georgann, and I decided to take another trip together this summer. And our travels have taken us to New York!
It’s been over fifteen years since I last visited the city of New York – way too long! One of my grandma’s best friends, Maxine, lives here and also has a home in East Hampton. When I saw her at my grandparents’ house last year, she graciously invited myself and my aunt to visit her anytime we wanted. We couldn’t pass up that invitation so we started tentatively planning a summer trip up here.
We arrived last Thursday and flew over Manhattan on our way to LaGuardia.
Can’t wait to be down there exploring!
Once on the ground, we immediately started making our way to the Hamptons with Maxine. Such a lovely drive (other than the traffic). I’m not sure about other people, but when I think of New York, my mind immediately goes to the city – high-rises, people, traffic… But venture outside of the city and this state contains so much natural beauty! I discovered this first in the Niagara region last year and now here, in and around the Hamptons. I love it.
We arrived in East Hampton around 4:30 and drove through town and to Main Beach for a quick look before heading to Maxine’s beautiful 1920’s home.
When we arrived, one of her daughters and her family were there as well. We all freshened up a bit then headed to dinner at Fresno Restaurant – a lovely place in town with a beautiful outdoor dining area.
We enjoyed a wonderful meal and I especially enjoyed the Moroccan-inspired salmon I ordered.
Theater time! Maxine had made arrangements for tickets to see the play All My Sons starring Alec Baldwin and Laurie Metcalf at Guild Hall. We had great seats in the small theater and the play was really, really good with superb acting!
Such a lovely way to start our time in East Hampton!
The sun, and more specifically, the birds, wake up really early around here! Wow. But I didn’t really mind – I love hearing the birds singing in the morning. 🙂
We had a lazy Friday morning, eating breakfast on the back porch and enjoying the surprisingly pleasant weather. The forecast prior to arriving had gloomily predicted rain all weekend but we didn’t see a drop of it until Saturday evening!
Mid-morning, we piled into the car to drive to Montauk – a town about thirty minutes from East Hampton. The main attraction there is the Montauk Point Lighthouse. I don’t believe I’ve ever visited a lighthouse before so I was excited to go up to the top of this one.
This lighthouse, a National Historic Landmark, is located in a beautiful setting with gorgeous views. It was constructed in 1796, was the first lighthouse built in New York and is the fourth oldest active lighthouse in the United States.
Georgann and I took the 137 steps up the spiral stairs to the light at the top. There wasn’t a lot of room up there and only one person at a time could climb up to the very top, but it was still really neat and if I lived in a lighthouse, I would spend most of my time at the top of the tower enjoying the beautiful views.
From there, we drove to Gosman’s Dock – a little shopping and dining area where we wandered through some stores then picked up clam chowder at the Clam Bar.
After our lunch on the docks we headed home where we grabbed some beach chairs and drove to Main Beach. Although the sun was shining this day, it was still a bit cool and breezy. But once on the beach, I actually warmed up enough to lay out for a bit. Yay!
We stayed there for a couple of hours then headed back to the house to get ready to attend Sunset Friday at the Wine Stand at Wölffer Estate Vineyard.
Every Friday evening during the summer, people bring lawn chairs and blankets to lay on the grass, buy some wine, and enjoy live music and the great outdoors. It was a very lovely way to spend the evening and the sun setting behind the vineyards provided a stunning backdrop.
We got back to the house around 8:30 and dinner was ready around 9:00. We enjoyed eating fresh fish we had picked up in Montauk along with some yummy veggies.
The following day, Saturday, started in a most lovely way – yoga! 🙂 One of Maxine’s other daughters who had arrived the day before invited me to join her at a local studio for a class. It was a packed class but wonderful – perfect way to start the day!
Later that afternoon, a few of us drove to Jackson Pollock’s house and studio. We toured his barn studio first and it was really neat to see the wood floor still covered with paint. Next we walked through his home where his widow, Lee Krasner, lived until her death in 1984.
We had planned on visiting the gardens at LongHouse Reserve but it was closed due to a private function. So instead we drove to the town of Sag Harbor where we parked the car and walked along the marina and through the village.
The weather was turning a bit gloomy at this point so we headed back to the house to prepare dinner. Another lovely meal was followed by a lazy evening of reading and writing.
Sunday morning I slept in late then walked into town to buy some of Dreesen’s famous donuts. I carried the bags filled with fresh, warm donuts back to the house without succumbing to them – so proud! 😛 Of course I devoured one cinnamon sugar and part of one powdered sugar donut as soon as I walked in the door. 😐
The rest of the morning and afternoon was spent walking through town, taking one last trip to the beach, and repacking for our return trip to the city.
Once back in Queens, where Maxine lives, we had dinner at Shanghai Asian Cuisine in Chinatown. Sooo good!!! We let Maxine’s daughter and son-in-law order for the table and everything that came out was delicious! I especially enjoyed trying soup dumplings for the first time. Not dumpling soup – soup dumplings. There is a difference. 🙂
Soup dumplings are dumplings with soup in them. You bite a little hole in the dumpling, slurp out the soup, then eat the dumpling. I was pretty fascinated.
Dinner brought an end to our wonderful time with Maxine’s lovely family. We bid adieu to them then made a quick stop at the Lemon Ice King of Corona for some lemon Italian ice on our way to Maxine’s apartment. Next stop: Manhattan!
Quite possibly the best Italian ice I’ve ever had
{life} A Beautiful Journey 