Tag Archives: New York

Ryan’s Family Visit Part 2 – Kayaking, Eating and the Hamptons

July 13, 2013TourismHamptons, Long Island, New York, Port JeffersonDiana

It took a little convincing but we got everyone into our fleet of water vehicles (2 hard shell kayaks, an inflatable kayak and an inflatable paddle board) for a trip back to the lagoon. With our motley crew set up we began our journey. It was another really hot day so it felt nice to be close to the water and feel the breeze.

Cindy and McKenna paddling away.

We all made it!

It turns out the beach was great for shell collecting and everyone came away with a great haul. There were really pretty spiral looking shells and McKenna found a rock that looked exactly like a potato!

What do you have? Wanna trade??

Nice day for a walk.

After paddling and splashing around during the day we’d get cleaned up and head to dinner. McKenna tried lots of new foods, even eating an oyster (yuck!).

All ready for some eating!

The lobster.

One of the days we were wandering around we went and looked at the fancy boats and then happened upon a movie night! There were also concerts in the park to enjoy on these warm summer nights.

We told them to tell their friends this was our boat. LOL!

Enjoying one of the concerts.

What a beautiful night.

Taking a break from our routine of swimming we went on a drive to the Hamptons. I’m not sure what all the fuss is about. Maybe as tourists we didn’t have access to the best parts, but what we found was $30 sandwiches and beaches that you couldn’t use unless you had applied for a beach permit months ago. There were lots and lots of fancy cars driving around though so Ryan got to drool over some of those. We walked around, looked at the fancy shops and in Sag Harbor looked at more fancy boats.

Sag Harbor

Taking a break from site seeing.

After that brief break it was back to swimming! Even Stanley got in on the act.

Taxi service

It was a fun, relaxing visit and we hope to see everyone again soon.

Ryan’s Family Visit Part 1 – Swimming, Sailing and lots of frozen yogurt

July 12, 2013TourismLong Island, New York, Port JeffersonDiana

Ryan’s family (Mom – Cindy, Stepdad – Chuck and Niece – McKenna) came out to visit us for 9 nine days in July. We were in Port Jefferson, NY when they arrived and decided to stay there for their entire visit due to the fun town with lots of restaurants, warm water for swimming and the availability of frozen yogurt. The amount of frozen yogurt consumed by 5 people over 9 nine was amazing, but this is vacation right?? 🙂

Right away when they arrived McKenna began what would be a common refrain….”Who wants to swim with me?!?” Since water was so nice we couldn’t resist! We also got out all the water toys to play with as well. There was also a lot of jumping and diving from the boat. Chuck is a good diver and was able to give some pointers to Ryan and McKenna who after some belly flops started to get the hang of it. Of course just jumping off was fun as well.

Flawlessly executed cannon ball!

Swimming away…

Paddling around.

A dingy ride was taken over to a different part of the Port Jeff harbor to the lagoon. McKenna found the shell of a horse shoe crab and added to her wardrobe!

The latest fashion. She can totally pull it off!

At the lagoon.

Since we wanted to show them what the boat could do we tied up our dingy to reserve our mooring ball and went for a day sail. With no destination in mind we followed the winds and had a relaxing day sailing on the Long Island Sound.

Sailing can be so relaxing…

McKenna feels the need for speed…too bad we are only going 6 knts!

Sailing away….

The whole time they were there it was unseasonably hot so a lot of our time was spent trying to stay cool. Swimming helped a lot and so did the occasional rain shower. McKenna and Chuck had a great time dancing around in the rain!

The rain feels so good!

It was fun to have Mckenna on the boat, she sure has a lot of energy and was a swimming machine! She is only 11 years old, but you can see the teenager already starting to emerge.

Too cool for these sunglasses!

Port Jeff was a nice place to go to dinner in the evenings. The main drag was a short walk from the dingy dock and had many tasty places to go.

Getting ready to go to dinner.

Full after another amazing dinner and of course some frozen yogurt!

More to come….

Our first visitor

July 6, 2013Personalities, TourismLong Island, New York, Port Jefferson, Port WashingtonDiana

Our friend Greg came out for a quick visit over the weekend of July 5^th. The first visitor we’ve had to the boat since moving aboard in April! Very exciting! We spent the morning of the 5^th making sure the boat was in ship shape and praying nothing would break. We wanted to greet Greg sitting on our back deck dressed in our fancy clothes drinking wine and pretend that’s what we did all day! By the way, in case you were wondering….It’s not! We had spent the previous few days completing boat chores (Ryan got the water maker working….WOOHOOO), scrubbing the hulls, doing laundry and grocery shopping. The last 2 may sound like simple tasks but when the laundromat is a half mile away and you have no car to carry back groceries its harder than you think. And the water maker was probably a 100 hour chore that Ryan had been working on for months!

Well anyway, Greg arrived in the late afternoon to where we were staying at Port Washington in Long Island. We hadn’t explored the town that much or eaten out (due to all those chores) so we welcomed the chance to go out when Greg arrived. We checked out the tiki bar at one marina, had dinner and then went to Louies for an after dinner drink. Port Washington is a nice town, not a whole lot going on but it’s cute.

Out on the town.

The next morning we got up and set off on an all day sail to Port Jefferson. It was one of the first days we sailed the whole way to where we going and was a nice change of pace. Usually we were trying to outrun thunder storms or get to a location early to get a good spot. But, on the way to Port Jeff we had a reserved mooring ball and clear weather so it didn’t matter how long it took! We had a nice relaxing day and even sailed down the channel into Port Jeff just because we could!

Greg at the helm.

Men at work.

Harassing my dog…

Greg and Stanley enjoying the best seat in the house.

What a great day for a sail!

Port Jeff is a nice protected harbor and the water looked clear so we decided go swimming! Well, Greg jumped in the water and then Ryan and I came in too. We haven’t been swimming at all yet because the water has been so murky but here I could actually see my toes, so in we went! And the fact that it was a billion degrees outside was also pretty convincing!

Enjoying some time in the water!

After some cooling off in the water we went out to explore Port Jeff which is a pretty awesome town! We arrived on a Saturday and the there were tons of people around. We had an amazing dinner at a Spanish restaurant and then wandered back to the boat.

The next day we did a tour of the harbor by dingy and found a small lagoon. There were some bluffs there that you could climb and come out looking at Long Island sound. It was really pretty and Greg even said it was Caribbean-esque. 🙂

The Caribbean-esque views.

We pulled out the paddle board again here and Greg took Stanley for a little ride.

The Stanley taxi.

It was a fun visit and we hope Greg comes back soon!

Manhattan Tourists

July 5, 2013TourismManhattan, New YorkDiana

Having not spent much time in New York (like only a 14 hour layover) I was happy to be able to play tourist! After an hour bus/subway trip from where we docked on City Island we arrived downtown in Grand Central Station and set out to explore. We probably walked 5 miles all over the city, visiting Central Park, gawking at the tall buildings, walking down Broadway, dodging people in Times Square and making our way to several of the different neighborhoods. We both really liked it, but Ryan’s not so much for big city life and felt a little claustrophobic. I did notice that no one was wearing sunglasses, but then you don’t really need to when the tall buildings block all the sun!

Grand Central

Central Park

Tall Buildings….

Times Square

Broadway!

We also saw a few establishments that reminded us of folks back home…. 🙂

Sailing through New York Harbor and the East River

July 1, 2013TourismEast River, New York, New York HarborDiana

We had an exciting day sailing through New York Harbor and the East River. We had great views as we went right past the Statue of Liberty, Ellis Island and the Manhattan city front. It was was also exciting due to all the boat traffic we were dodging and the crazy currents.

So awesome to see it up close!

Proof we were both there!

Ellis Island

The ferrys were a bit frightening as they were determined to take right away, never mind the rules of the road! I guess the only rule that really matters is…if it’s bigger than you get out of its way!

Bigger than us.

We had some amazing views of Manhattan from the water!

Again, the proof… we couldn’t believe it ourselves!

As we continued past Manhattan we went under a number of bridges. I think this one is the Brooklyn Bridge.

We were reminded of home when we saw a sugar factory right on the water. Just like Crockett!! I’ve never heard of this kind of sugar though.

More bridge pictures…

Things got a bit excited as we continued down the east river. Not only was there other boat traffic to dodge but as we neared Hell’s Gate the currents really picked up. At one point our boat was going 13.9 knots, a boost of about 5 knots. This is the fastest we’ve ever got the boat going! And then, as we approach one turn we see a 15 ft whirlpool in front of us. Really?? A whirlpool??? Yikes. We got into the edge of that and it swung the boat around pretty good but then we kept going. Wow. I wish I had gotten a better picture but was too terrified to get out the camera until after we were well past!

The Voyage of Ryana

Ryan, Diana and Stanley explore the world Western Atlantic by boat