Shawn and I are on our last day of vacation. We've been in FIP for 10 sunny days...
Friday, August 14:
We left Manhattan around 8:45am. Traffic into the Midtown tunnel was bad. But we didn't hit any traffic in Long Island! Shocker! We stopped at Stop'n Shop for groceries and made it to the 11:30am Sayville/FIP ferry. We had ham and cheese roll-ups for lunch. We laid by the pool all afternoon soaking up the sun. For dinner, we decided to make chicken breasts because we didn't know if Patrick or Tim would be able to make it for dinner. Turns out, Patrick had the day off and arrived on the 1:30pm ferry. Tim couldn't arrive until Saturday. Well, i brined the chicken breasts and added pineapple juice to the mixture. I let it sit for several hours. We attended Low Tea so that we could wave "hello" to the people arriving on the evening ferries. Then went home to make dinner. I also made a pesto pasta dish with homemade pesto. I used bow-ties (farfalle). I also made a salad with a homemade vinagrette. I added a teaspoon of soy sauce as recommended by Melissa d'Arabian (the current Next Food Network Star winner.) After dinner, we watched a few episodes of "The Big Bang Theory" and went to bed.
Saturday, August 15:
I woke up around 9am. We didn't do much besides read news on the internet and get caught up with friends status' on Facebook. That had become our morning ritual during the week! Patrick and I walked Sammy and Teddy on the beach. The beach was gorgeous. And very flat. Great for walking and running. I don't remember what we ate for lunch... I think we had sausages. Yes, come to think of it, we ate sausages. Oh... and I made a pesto pasta salad! How could I forget that! Again, we laid by the pool. Drank cocktails. Attended Low Tea. Tim arrived as we headed to Low Tea. He dropped his bags off and met us there. We skipped Middle and High Tea. For dinner, we had pork loin, brocolli rabe, and salad. After dinner, we watched a few more episodes of "The Big Bang Theory" and went to bed. Tim wanted to go out, but we were all too tired.
Sunday, August 16:
Ascension Party! The annual beach party sponsored by Erik von K who owns much of the commercial property in FIP. Story goes.... he wanted FIPOAA to move the Pines Party to the day so it wouldn't compete with Pavilion. Well, FIPOAA didn't move the party and the feud started. Erik started his own beach party to compete. Now both parties have their pluses and minuses.... dancing on the beach under the stars or under the sun?? Both are a lot of fun! Anyway, we arrived around 1pm and walked through the giant "A" at the enterance. We danced until it closed at 6pm. Fortunately, the party was just one Walk away, so we could easily go home and come back. The sun was shining brightly and there wasn't much of a breeze in the main dance floor area due to the VIP areas blocking the breeze. But there wasa nice breeze near the enterance where they laid sod and built two reflecting pools. Some party goers went into the ocean to cool off. The beach around the party was packed, too. Cute boys on the beach, in the water, and on the dance floor! :) We saw a lot of old friends and met some new friends. Tony Moran spun a fantastic set. And Kelly Rowlands sang two songs. Dean and Dan invited us over for dinner afterwards. Their guest Hoong made a tasty pasta sauce that he slow cooked all day with country ribs, sausage, and meatballs. Coincidentally, I was telling Tim that I was craving it before I knew that we were going to have it... I felt like cooking that same pasta sauce! We didn't stay very long because we were all tired from dancing under the hot sun all day. We went home and went right to bed. No Pavilion for us! Only downside to the day... Patrick couldn't join us. He had to work on Monday. So he departed on the 4:50pm ferry.
Monday, August 17:
Jerry arrived on the 11:30am ferry. Tim and I greeted him with a cocktail! We ate burgers for lunch and lounged by the pool with cocktails. Jerry made tasty margaritas! We went to Low Tea which was still pretty busy. What did we eat for dinner?? I remember we had asparagus as a side. Tim wrapped them in ham and swiss cheese. I made the salad. What was the protein?? Ribs! LOL. That's right. I asked Jerry if he could make ribs! Unfortunately, the cut of ribs was not very good and the ribs were a bit of a disappointment. (Flash forward to Tuesday.... we ate the second rack for lunch and the meat was much better! Mm mm.) After dinner, we watched a few more episodes of "The Big Bang Theory" and went to bed.
Tuesday, August 18:
Tim had to work, so he got up early to drive back to Manhattan. As I mentioned earlier, we ate the leftover ribs for lunch. We had bought two racks but only ate one rack on Monday. The second rack was much better than the first. Again, we lounged by the pool and drank cocktails. Shawn, Jerry, and I went for a walk along the beach. The beach was still gorgeous. Later, we went to Low Tea and stayed until the 7:30pm ferry arrived (close to 8pm.) Yong was on board. We met him at the harbor and walked him to the house. We had chicken parm for dinner. Yummy... the chicken had our special ingredient: bacon! The nice, thick bacon from the Meat Market. After dinner, we watched a few more episodes of "The Big Bang Theory" and went to bed.
Wednesday, August 19:
Hump day! Our vacation hit the middle mark. Earlier in the week, we had talked about going to Cherry Grove for lunch. But we had so much chicken parm left over. So we had chicken parm sandwiches for lunch. We lounged by the pool again and drank cocktails. Jerry made pina coladas (and a virgin one for Yong.) We skippped Low Tea. We invited John and Billy over for dinner. They still had one housemate, Luciano, and one guest, Tom. So we invited them, too. Yong made a lovely dinner. He roasted two whole chickens, butterflied. He used a Gwyneth Paltrow recipe. The chicken was so moist and tasty. Yong also made a side salad and grilled asparagus. Oh... and there were roasted potatoes baking with the chicken. We ate outside. A lovely evening despite the mosquitoes! After dinner and the guests went home, we watched more episodes of "The Big Bang Theory" and went to bed. BTW, fresh produce is really lacking mid-week in FIP.
Thursday, August 20:
Jerry left on the Noon ferry. He needed to get back to run errands and prep for the "Who Wants to Be A Millionaire" test. Yong made chicken salad sandwiches for lunch. Yong and I took a nice walk along the beach. The surf was starting to get rough due to Hurricane Bill in the Atlantic. We lounged by the pool a bit more. Yong took the 6pm ferry home. Shawn and I skipped Low Tea. We bought NY strip steaks at the Pines Meat Market. Prime cut... dry aged. So good. Shawn grilled them to perfection! I made a squash gratin (with gruyere cheese) and salad. We finished watching "The Big Bang Theory" series. And we also watched the most recent episode of "True Blood". We also watched the latest Terminator movie. I wasn't bad.... except for the hokey ending.
Friday, August 21:
We had another lazy day by the pool. We had sausages for lunch. We bought pork chops for dinner. They were cut for us at the Pines Meat Market. Unfortunately, Tim and Patrick couldn't make it. Wicked storm hit the area... but bypassed FIP! Dark clouds approached around 5pm, but quickly disapated. The sun returned quickly! FIPOAA had sent a warning about swimming in the ocean due to riptides. Hurricane Bill is coming up the coast! We went to Low Tea and then came home to grill the pork chops. Again, Shawn grilled them to perfection! I made the romano cheese and black pepper pasta dish. And we had a caesar salad. We fell asleep in front of the TV. We're such old farts!
Saturday, August 22:
Shawn and I walked to check out the beach. The smell of "ocean" was extra strong today. Due to Bill, high tied had covered the entire beach and there was a lot of water still collected. At Beach Hill, you would have to walk through the water to get onto the beach. And the volleyball area was still under water. The surf was VERY rough! Patrick arrived on the 11:20am ferry. We had a hodge podge of stuff for lunch. Patrick ate the extra pork chop, I ate a sausage, and shawn ate a ham and cheese sandwich. Patrick and I walked to the beach. The water was nice yet rough. There were signs warning against going in the water. And Patrick noticed the nautical flags signaling "hurricane". Tim didn't end up coming out. He called and said he woke up with a cold. Shawn and I went to Justin's birthday party at Reflections. We chatted with friends and had a good time. On our way home, we stopped at the Pantry. Later on, we went to Low Tea. Afterwards, we stopped at High Tea for a drink. But then quickly moved to Middle Tea. As usual, Middle Tea was packed. We left around 9pm. For dinner, we had rib eye steaks that Patrick brought. Almost 1 lb each! So much and so delicious! I made the same pasta dish again, but added too much pepper this time. I made a side salad. We also had corn on the cob and fennel. Both grilled. We had so much leftovers. Shawn went right to bed. Patrick and I watched the latest episode of "True Blood" and then went to bed.
Sunday, August 23:
It is now Sunday morning. A cloudy morning. A nice way to end our vacation in FIP. We had a lot of sun. A lot of fun. The week certainly flew by. I'm thinking that we should take the 1:50pm ferry home. It makes me a bit sad to reflect abou the entire week. Vacation is coming to an end. Back to reality. Oh well, we couldn't enjoy things like this without working.
Oh... and I am still smoking. In fact, Icarus bought me a carton of cigarettes from Duty Free. $13!
