Long Island Children's Museum

My kids love going to the Long Island Children's Museum and are always as excited to go there even though we've been there a few times. It's a great place for a rainy day, or if you just need to spend some quality time together. Last week we went to the LICM theater for the first time and the girls really enjoyed the play, Princess Frog, which was a musical show based on the Italian fairy tale "The Prince who Married a Frog". After the show the girls ran straight into their favorite room in the museum, the bubble room, where you can actually stand inside a soap bubble.

Scream

Mona Lisa

Hendrick's Tavern

One of our favorite restaurants in Long Island is Hendrick's Tavern in Roslyn. My hubby and I go there every now and then for drinks and bar snacks, and it's always crowded with a good, fun vibe, and you end up seeing some local celebrities there. However, we never ate a proper dinner there, so when my daughter wanted to go there for her 13th birthday family dinner, we were happy to oblige. The restaurant is in an old building, dating to mid 1700's, and its claim to fame is that George Washington stayed at the tavern a long, long time ago. The tavern was updated a few years ago, and whoever designed it did a pretty good job. The middle bar area has old painted portraits of GW, but the rest of the restaurant has black and white photographs. Anyhoo, it's not exactly a family friendly restaurant, no kids' menu, etc, but when did that stop us? Certainly didn't stop us last weekend.

The only kids at the restaurant. Lucky it's a pretty noisy place. 

The menu is seafood and steaks, mostly. 

Flying the French fry flag

Yay! Fireworks at our table. Happy 13th birthday!

And the verdict for the food: It's ok... The lobster mac and cheese is to die for, but it couldn't carry the dinner alone. So it's not going to be our favorite dinner spot but we will definitely continue going for the drinks and the bar food.

Jones Beach

The best thing about living on Long Island is the beaches. I never get tired of saying it, and I never get tired of the beaches. Watching the waves on Jones Beach is so relaxing, it restores me and renews my spirit. This summer I was so busy I only got to go to Jones Beach once, a couple of weeks ago, on the last days before the kids' schools started. There's been a heat wave in New York though, so maybe I'll still get to go later in September...

Sunset Picnic

Here are the pictures from last Friday's sunset picnic. The Seacliff sunset picnic is really my favorite thing to do in the summer. All you need is some good company, a bottle of something bubbly, something to munch, and then just settle down to enjoy. I'm planning another sunset picnic for tomorrow, and I really hope the weather co-operates.

The recipe for a successful picnic: set the food and drinks next to the playground, let kids run around and play while the adults get to eat and drink in peace, bring a row of chairs to relax and watch the sunset... 

Almost There

I'm almost there... only four more days to go... and then...

VACATION!!!!!

Finland, the motherland, is waiting and I am so ready for it. Can't wait to relax and clear my mind of the constant demands and noise.

Usually I manage to calm things down once school is out, but this summer has been super busy. There hasn't been any summer lull at work, and it has also been crazy busy on the personal front. Many things are happening that I've put in motion myself. They are good things and things that may propel life forward, but the constant busyness takes its emotional toll. I'm very lucky that this break comes at the exact right time.

My plan for this weekend was to hang out with friends on Friday and Saturday, and then pack for the kids and myself on Sunday. But you know the saying about best laid plans... our sewer system had other things in mind, and I ended up spending Friday cleaning up after a toilet backed up in our basement. Not as much fun as hanging out with friends would have been.

Luckily there was still Saturday, and dear friends visiting. We had lunch, we took them to the beach on Sands Point, and to the Roslyn village to eat FroYo. We ended up at our house, sitting around the fire pit, having a lovely conversation. There's nothing better than to see old friends, and to realize that after some struggles they are in a good place in their lives, happy, healthy, and content, enjoying the here and now, and with dreams for the future. Very much like myself, in fact, although living in very different circumstances.

Montauk

Last Sunday hubby and me escaped to the tip of Long Island, i.e. the East End, for a 24-hour mini vacation. It was my first time in Montauk, and of course it was love at first sight. I mean, the ocean side is my happy place, and in Montauk, you can never be too far from the ocean. Driving through the Hamptons you can see a big difference between Montauk and the other towns. Montauk is much more down-to-earth. It's a bit more hippy, a bit more surfer-dude, and if not completely devoid of the "Hamptons vibe" it's much more relaxed and less of a scene.

We stayed at the Montauk Yacht Club. 

The marina of the yacht club was nice, and there were some nice yachts to admire. 

The room had a maritime theme. 

We had an early dinner at the Navy Beach restaurant. 

I loved the relaxed vibe. 

We lucked out because the weather was a bit on and off, but it was gorgeous during our dinner. 

The other clientele was quite young.. city folks out in Montauk for the weekend. 

It wasn't quite warm enough for a swim... 

We drove out to the Montauk Point to see the lighthouse. 

It's one of the oldest in America, built in 1796.

The Montauk Point beach was full of surfers. Yes, those black dots in the water are surfers. 

At this point the weather started to turn really windy. 

This guy was coming back with his paddle board. He must've fallen a few times, he was so full of cuts and bruises. Ouch! 

An interesting rock at the beach. Wonder what caused that crack...

It was a very nice little get-away, extremely relaxing. And it was good to have some time with the hubby without having to worry about anyone else or being constantly interrupted. We slept like ten hours! But I'm not sure if I'd want to stay away from the kids longer than a night or two. It may be pathetic, but I really miss them when away...