In the Summer Swim

The view from the beach house in Connecticut (click on photos to enlarge).
TD and I have had a wonderful summer and have been able to get out of town a lot on the weekends. We used to go to visit my parents in Guilford, Connecticut, taking the train out of Grand Central Station on a Friday night after a week of work. But my mother has passed away and my father has moved to Colorado and the family house was sold so TD and I have gotten creative regarding getting out of town in the summer. Also, we have lovely invitations!

TD and I both like to be near the water, specifically salt water. Ted grew up in Atlantic City and so he spent his childhood on the beach, and my family took summer vacations on the Jersey Shore on Long Beach Island, which is where my great aunt Margie, who lived in Philadelphia, had a summer beach house. We drove to the Jersey Shore from upstate New York, six of us in the station wagon, and there I was introduced to the ocean and the soothing, calming sound of the waves.

Then in college I spent two summers on the island of Martha's Vineyard where I was very close to the ocean. I especially liked the "up island" end of Martha's Vineyard, previously called Gay Head and now called the Indian name Aquinnah, which is very wild and free and feels like the end of the earth to me. I recently came across this photo of my family on the beach there. This is from around 1985 - clockwise from the top, Eric, me, Cynthia, my mother, my father, and Thom.

I love to swim in the ocean and float along. When I'm in the ocean drifting I feel like I'm detached from the earth and earthly concerns and in the care of something greater, floating along in my life on my adventures and all is well. The water is a spiritual place for me.

One weekend in July, Ted's cousins the Pero's invited us to the Jersey Shore for the weekend and we went to the Ocean City beach, which is huge and wide. We spent a fun week there a couple years ago. It's packed with people as far as the eye can see having fun at the beach -

Another weekend, we took a ferry to the Sandy Hook National Park beach in New Jersey. On the boat ride back, this is the view as you return to Manhattan. New York City sparkles - it's like approaching the Emerald City.

Our friends Gary and David invited us for a weekend to their home in Fire Island, Pines -

With the ferries coming and going in and out of the harbor, carrying passengers to and from, the Pines really is a special place -

Southampton was the destination one weekend when we were hosted by my brother Thom and his family. We arrived on Friday afternoon and went promptly to the beach where neighbors had set up camp with billowing umbrellas and sheets for shade. I thought the arrangement looked very "Gerald and Sara Murphy in the South of France."

TD and I took a bike ride into the village to pick up some things. With its high green hedges and majestic trees, Southampton really is a beautiful town.



One weekend we took a subway and a bus to the beach at Jacob Riis Park in the Rockaways at the end of Brooklyn, which we had not been to before. Another time, we took the train to Jones Beach. But the best part of the summer was when we rented a beach house in Guilford on the Long Island Sound for a week in August. We came in the back door and walked through the house to find this view of the water out the front (and at the top of this post).

It was a wonderful house and we enjoyed being there on the water so much.

The view was so beautiful that we could barely close our eyes day or night -

To take a break from the sun we drove one day to New Haven to the Yale Center for British Art, which has recently been renovated. In the Long Gallery (pictured below) on the top floor, paintings are now hung and stacked by theme - Landscapes, Portraits, etc., for a dazzling display of English art. It's a jaw-dropping room and offered the perfect combination of a heady dose of art on a sunny beach holiday. Admission is free. Do get to the Yale Center for British Art if you can -

Back on our little seaside point, we enjoyed a small community beach where neighbors of all ages came to sit in the sand and swim out to a floating raft. My brother Eric and his wife Tracy came out to visit.
At night we took walks around the neighborhood -

And tried to commit to memory the beautiful vistas

Summertime is a happy time of travels and get togethers, and I'm always a little wistful when Labor Day comes along. I hope you are have having a wonderful summer too --

A Week in Ocean City

A grand house steps away from the beach. (click on photos to enlarge)
TD and I are back from a much-needed vacation in Ocean City, New Jersey, where we rented a nice beach bungalow for a week. TD is from the area and his mother lived nearby so the idea was to spend some time with her but you may recall that she passed away very quickly in June. We were glad to go to Ocean City anyway and visit with his relatives and enjoy its spectacular beach.

Ocean City is actually an island located south of Atlantic City, which is also an island. Methodist ministers founded Ocean City in 1879, and the town is still "dry," with no alcohol sold within its borders. Ocean City is well-known for its big boardwalk, complete with an old-fashioned ferris wheel.

We stayed in the northern "garden district" where there are still many old homes like the big one pictured at the top of this post. Grace Kelly's family, which came from Philadelphia, had a summer home in Ocean City. Writer Gay Talese was born and raised in Ocean City, and owned a family summer home there until his wife, editor Nan Talese, unbeknownst to him, bought another weekend home in Roxbury, Ct.
We rented bicycles for the week, and enjoyed pedaling around looking at the  houses and gardens.

Some of the big family homes made quite a statement, but I also liked the smaller, simpler bungalows. Tendrils of green ivy were painted on the front of this charming cottage.

Many of the houses had awnings over the windows to keep the hot sunshine out of the interior rooms. Awnings came in many striped color combinations but I was drawn to those in tailored grey and white.

This grey bungalow had a handsome "pinstripe" awning, and the yard was surrounded by chic white impatiens plants. I personally like things to be simple like this; I don't like a lot of clashing colors distracting the eye.

We saw Ted's family on several nights, and it was fun to hear them recall old reminiscences. Every day we went to the beach which is long, wide and crowded with aficionados. Whole families, from great grandparents to infants, came down to the beach, with wagons and carts loaded with chairs, umbrellas, lunch, and all kinds of accoutrements. This community takes its beach-going very seriously!
A path to the ocean -

Stairway to heaven -

Clear skies ahead -

One day dark storm clouds rolled in but other than that we had good weather.

Lifeguards on duty -

TD pedals home from the beach -

On the beach at dusk – we are coming up on our 28th anniversary! 

The beach is always relaxing and restorative for us. And being with Ted's family, I learned more about him, even after all these years. It was a quiet, peaceful vacation; one of those places that was hard to leave, both physically and mentally. I hope you are enjoying these August days too.