Eastern Long Island

Douglas spent last week climbing Mt. Marcy with a group of middle school students. I spent the week in Eastern Long Island going to the beach and spending time with my family. Who do you think had more fun?

Actually, Douglas did have a good time on his trip, but I was happy to be spending time with my family. Jo challenged me to participate in the quote challenge. My quote for today is… “There’s nothing that makes you more insane than family. Or more happy. Or more exasperated. Or more… secure.” – Jim Butcher. My family has been known to drive me crazy and frustrate me to know end, but thankfully last week was a happy secure one.

My sister in law and I also did some kayaking. Laura had not been on a kayak for a really long time, but I think that she enjoyed it. She had a huge grin on her face the entire time.

The next day I went out on the water with my brother Jeremy. I don’t think he was in nearly as much pain as he seems to be in these pictures.

We saw several osprey, cranes and many swans, ducks and geese.

We also saw two muskrats. I did not get any pictures of the first one, but you might be able to spot the second one swimming away from Jeremy in the first picture. In the second picture, he is climbing out of the water. The third picture is the same as the second but cropped and re-sized so that you can see the little guy better.

The next day brother Justin did some kayaking as well. Can you tell we love to be out on the water?

Mom came with us to the beach a couple of days as did Kahlua. Indian Island is a great park in Riverhead that is free during the week and allows dogs. Kahlua was thrilled to be in a place where she could dig to her heart’s content without getting yelled at.

Also in Riverhead is the Long Island Aquarium. It is free the week of your birthday, so we went to celebrate my mom and Christian.

I used to have a membership at the aquarium when I lived in Riverhead and had visited many times. However, there had been a lot of changes. The biggest difference was the addition of the butterfly exhibit. It was really nice.

One of the butterflies really loved my mother’s skirt. Can you see him there?

Since I was going anyway, I decided to purchase an annual couple’s membership rather than just a single visit. Douglas has never been to the aquarium, and we can more than pay for our membership with just a couple more visits.

It really is a great aquarium.

On Wednesday, I leave for Costa Rica. It will be a similar trip to the one that I did two years ago. If you would like to read more about that trip, you can read the first three posts on this page. I suggest you start with the third.

Happy Homemaking!