Fire Island

It seems that at the tail-end of summertime, people party it up extra hard. All those weeks of ultrahot weather that made it impossible to roll out of bed without losing half your body weight in sweat are well behind us now. The prospect of it getting chilly soon inspires everyone to get out and do the things you won't be able to comfortably do in another month or two, and the people who they've been promising to get together with all summer long. Nothing motivates like a deadline.

A gorgeous day out on the water was called for. We headed out to eastern Long Island to play on Fire Island for the day. We are lucky to have our good friends and neighbors to facilitate. They are truly the most hospitable people that I the privilege of knowing. Also, they are the only people that I know that I was able to find a google map of where they keep their boat. Surprise! You can't get rid of me once I have the information.

After a false start because of a sinking jet ski, we were off across the bay to a remote beach.



Fire Island is a long barrier island. Most of it is a part of the National Seashore, so it's a long stretch of dunes and sand that isn't accessible unless you have a boat (or willing to walk for a couple miles). It all adds up to having a big empty stretch of near-private beach practically empty. It's wonderful, and a rarity to have a beach to yourself anyplace this close to the Hamptons.



Being on the water makes me super relaxed and happy. Growing up, most summery days were either spent on the beach or on the boat, so I always feel a little nostalgic motoring around the coastline.



After a long hard day of playing in the waves, it's nice to swim back to your boat and grill up some burgers.



This is Tom. Not only does he captain a seaworthy vessel and chef it up out to sea, he is a handyman extraordinaire who fixes my roof and faucet when it leaks.



And this is Cheryl, who took all these awesome pictures because I'm too afraid of what the sand and salt will do to my camera:



But she also does a much better job than I do getting good shots, so I'm happy to leave the photographs to her. I was really happy to find the place we currently reside in Brooklyn because she lives right next door. She's all sorts of crazy fun.



I also got to sit back and get a bit of work done on my Broadripple socks.





If you took summertime and distilled it down to its essence, this day would be a pretty perfect representation of what it's all about.