Day 4 - Long Island

Day 4 – Hers The Sunday of the annual family weekend is always a bit of a strange day. Each grandchild has some tradition that must be followed before those with work or camp or commitments catch their transport home. For some it’s a run on the beach, for others a last swim – or tubing behind Grandpa’s boat – for still others it’s lunch at Claudio’s Clam Bar or the Chowder Pot Pub (an easy decision this year as the Chowder Pot Pub is closed for refurbishment). Some years we have also had to fit in a round of mini-golf or croquet on the lawn. This year we had to coordinate a group photograph, everyone on the steps, to replace the one from 2006 – and a team effort to lift the heavier bits of dock back into place. A whirlwind of morning activity, a lunch that is always too much food....and then it stops. Damp beach towels, empty soft drink cans – and invariably one forgotten flip flop – scattered on the sandy porch remain to tell the tale.

Arranging lunch for 15 on a summer weekend at a dockside restaurant that doesn’t take reservations requires serious logistical strategy. The advance party went an hour early to set up a spearhead, nabbing three tables as each became free and assembling them into a line. The rest of us arrived in another 3 cars, two already packed for the journeys home, and swarmed into the melee, establishing our base camp somewhere between the day sailors from Connecticut and the weekenders from Queens. Rob ordered a footlong hot dog with sauerkraut – he said he was trying out the ‘international cuisine’ - most of the rest of us had clams, scallops or lobster – and we managed to split the bill without bickering which was a plus. Entertainment was provided by the manoeuvrings of inexperienced boat handlers negotiating the narrow slips. Note to novice Greenport mariners: You cannot turn a 50 foot boat around when the docks are only 50 feet apart......