Vacation 2009 part one

Vacation this year was very much anticipated. I have had a busy year and things haven't exactly been smooth and calm. Vacation wasn't, either.

We actually had a good, uneventful drive to Mom's house on Long Island on Tuesday, 9/8. We had a good dinner with Mom, spent the night there and drove to Montauk the next day to begin our stay there. That drive went well, also - not broken lights, no flat tires, none of the other problems that have plagued us on other trips. We arrived in Montauk in the middle of a gale - winds 20-40 mph. Only a small complication when the boat is on the trailer, a big one when you want to be in the boat on the water. Waves too hight, gusts too high, not safe, so we were grounded (so to speak). We were grounded for the first 3 days of 7. Topping that, we both got sick within a day or two of arrival. Sick enough that it was a struggle to make ourselves go on the boat on the nice days. This was what the water looked like near the Montauk Point lighthouse. It is not very welcoming or friendly looking, is it?

This kind of sea isn't for small boaters - actually, even the charter boats cancelled their trips - but it is so awesome, so awe-inspiring to look out at those waves, see nature "in action" and kind of let you know your place in the bigger picture. We couldn't stay away. If I hadn't felt so miserable, I would have sat there for hours watching the water, the birds, the sky. Wow.



Normally, at the lighthouse, there are fisherman in the surf, in the water, all trying to catch striped bass. Some even wear wetsuits and swim out to fish on the rocks further from shore. This time, all of the fisherman were up on the rocks - no one ventured into the surf.



9/11 occurred 2 days after we arrived, and in NY, at least, that's a big deal. There are still people dying from things they were exposed to during that terrible event, and it really hasn't slipped as far back in peoples' minds there as it has elsewhere.

Saturday was nice, finally, and we got the boat in the water and went fishing. I brought knitting, of course. I chose different projects each day - visible progress was made on Bob's sweater sleeve, Rob's afghan, my sock, my brother's sock and a scarf. Bob and I both felt pretty sick and called our doctors on Monday morning to request antibiotics, which were called in for us.

That's it for tonight. I'll continue this another day.