Sunset at the Ocean

On Saturday night we went for a sunset dinner at the Ocean restaurant in Bayville, Long Island. It is an amazing spot on the beach to enjoy any time of the day, but extra special at sunset. This was my first time at this particular restaurant, and I had heard only good things about it. However, our experience was a bit strange this Saturday. We chose to sit on the sun deck lounge, and we were seated promptly, the staff was courteous and friendly. We ordered our drinks, appetizers, kids' meals, and our own main courses. Despite requesting the appetizers first they brought out the kids' meals first. Ok, not a big deal we thought. Our appetizers came soon after. We were enjoying the beautiful views, watching the sailboats in the distance, people walking on the beach, sipping sangria, having a conversation. So we didn't really even notice how much time went by and still no main courses. We only noticed after the table next to us started complaining that they never got theirs. And they arrived about an hour after us...

"The sun goes in my eyes!"

"I need sunglasses"

Ah, that's better. 

I could while away hours watching this view

The wedding guests mingled downstairs

Our waitress told us the kitchen was overwhelmed because of a wedding party going on downstairs, but that our food would arrive very soon. So we waited another half hour. But still no food. At this point it was a bout 2 hours since we had ordered, and we decided to call it a day, and asked for the check. There was no apology from the waitress, nothing was given on the house. Of course we paid for what we had been served, but it would have been nice to hear an apology or an explanation why our food never came.

The sangria was yummy

The crab cake was pretty good

So was this little mixed plate of pita, hummus, babaganoush and olives

The bride and groom being photographed

Aaaahhhh.... and the stress is just melting away while watching this.

My husband is not one to stay quiet in a situation like this, so he called for the restaurant manager and had a pretty long chat with him. The manager even recognized us from another restaurant, Prime, in Huntington, where we go every now and then, and where he used to work before. He didn't know why we never got our food, but at least he apologized for it. The Ocean supposedly has three kitchens, one for the catering area where the wedding was held, one for the lounge, and a sushi kitchen. Only the sun deck lounge had a problem with the food, so the problem must have been in that kitchen. I saw sushi orders come promptly and they looked really good. Next time I will order sushi. So yes, I will give the Ocean another chance. The view is just too beautiful to pass up going again.

Morgan Park

John Pierpont Morgan, the financier who founded J.P. Morgan, which has since morphed into the financial giant JP Morgan Chase, built the Morgan Park in Glen Cove, Long Island's north shore, to honor his wife's memory after she passed away in 1926. Long Island is full of beautiful scenic waterfront spots, but this park is definitely one of the best. I love going there, and we do, year round, but of course the beach is at its loveliest in the summer. 

More from the Gardens

The Old Westbury Gardens is so gorgeous that you could literally take hundreds of photos there... So I have to share some more beauty from there. Hope you have a chance to visit and experience the splendor and imagine that you are there in the "Gatsby" era. At that time, in the early 1900s, the Long Island North Shore where I live, was full of these amazing mansions (some were really more like castles), and their great gardens. The upkeep of some of the biggest houses required a vast number of people. One of the biggest estates was in Roslyn Harbor, called Harbor Hill, and I read somewhere that Harbor Hill employed about a hundred people just to work on the grounds. No wonder the Gold Coast vanished in the mid 1900s, it just got too expensive to keep these spectacular places.

Long Island is full of these geese! This little geese family is adorable.
But they're not so cute when you step in their droppings ;-)

This girl loves the Old Westbury Garden too. She is always eager to go there! 

Shells

I have a slight obsession with sea shells. Not the fancy perfect kind, that you can buy in stores, but the ordinary, a bit broken up kind of shells that line the beaches of North Shore of Long Island. Every time I go for a beach walk I come back with a pocket full of shells...and some nice stones, and pieces of drift glass or wood..or pretty much anything made pretty by sand and water... My daughters share in on my passion and they too love to collect shells (and acorns, and stones, and pinecones, and all kinds of nature stuff that I don't even have names for...).

Maybe it's the colors.. Blues, grays and whites.. after all, I am a Finn!

Aren't they PRETTY? 

Say this fast: She sells sea shells on the sea shore.