New York Recap Take One-The Beaches

We traveled to Long Island last week to catch up with friends and spend time with the Nugent family. Our trip went really well. We started it off by driving straight through the night on Wednesday and pulling into Mike's parents house 12 hours later. Now that was with two stops only. One for food and one for gas. That is pretty amazing when you consider the three girls in the back under the age of eight.

Long Island is a great place to visit, but even better in summer when you can enjoy all the island has to offer. The weather was the warmest it had been there all summer long and we took full advantage of the great beaches. Long Island has this great set up (HEHE-God set it up), 20 minutes from Mike's parents is the Atlantic Ocean Beaches. But only five minutes away are the beaches on the LI sound. Now if you want big waves and sandy beaches you head to the Ocean, but if you want calmer waters and quiet quaint beaches you go to the sound where it is a little more rocky. I know all of you reading this are just saying to yourself, must be tough living there right. Yes, this is why Mike is so attracted to beaches. Many of his "Island" stories involve beaches.

So if we weren't at Mike's sisters pool, we were at the beach. Here is the first installment of our trip pictures and all of them were taken at a beach.

We were able to catch up with some friends from LI that Mike hadn't seen in a while. This is a picture of Mike-left, Mark-center and James-right. They started up right where they left off with each other. It was great to see them together again.

My brother in law, Steve, was helping the boys fly kites. These are Ethan and Kyle, my nephew.

The Long Island sound seperates New York and Conneticut.

Rachel swimming in the sound collecting rocks.

Nicole swimming in the sound.



Morgan had a rock collection before we went on our trip, she tried to increase it by 100% I think.


Grandma and Nicole at Smith's Point Beach on the South Shore of LI-this is the Atlantic Ocean.

I told the kids I was going to take a picture and as soon as I lifted the camera, they all started to run!

Rae trying to boogie board!

Kite flying. Uncle Steve was a little frustrated with the kites at first, but then we had two kites going strong.

Nicole was so brave on the boogie boards with the waves. At times she went further out than comfortable for me though. I just am not as secure in the ocean as Mike is.


Cousin Amanda and Nicole after being tossed by the waves.

James and his son Ethan.

My neice Heather with her board and googles, something never to leave home with for Heather.

The Fishler kids with Nic, Rae and Morgan and my neices and nephew. Wow, this shot took work.

My brother in law Steve took us "four wheeling" as they say down the beach. On the beach, if you have the right permit, you can take your truck on the beach away from all of the congestion of the public beaches. This was great, you just pull up your truck with all of your stuff and you minimize your walking. We had so much fun.

Snack time

Morgan and her board.

Here are Amanda and Nicole on their boards. They had "friends" all around them.

Heather, Nicole and I were in the way back of the hummer on our trip down the beach, so we made the most of it.


Our friends super cute daughter taking a break for her PB&J.

Stay tunned for our second installment of our NY trip.