Connecticut and Long Island

On Friday, I left Boston and drove a couple of hours to Hartford, Connecticut, where my friend Joao ("John") from residency lives. Funny, but after all the long-distance driving I've been doing, I was surprised when I realized how quickly I could drive between states in New England....Hartford was only 2 hours away from Boston. I arrived before noon.

John and I went to lunch in Hartford at a very cute little bistro, and had quite a bit of time to catch up. He's doing very well, although I'm not surprised by that -- I'm like a crazy neurotic, always a little on edge and wanting things to be better. John, on the other hand, is totally mellow, and has been for as long as I've known him. I don't think things really get to him. So there's problems at work? He doesn't even really think about them. He's very quietly confident in his abilities, and doesn't question himself or the people around him nearly as much as I do. It's always very calming for me to be around him -- although I probably make him crazy. (Maybe not, though -- that's the whole point -- he doesn't get crazy over anything....)

Anyway, after lunch we went back to his house and awaited his wife and daughter (Danica and Annelie). Danica is just as relaxed, mellow, and warm as John is, and we had a really nice evening. They made supper at home, and some of their friends came over and joined us with their two kids, a boy and a girl. Their daughter and Annelie had a princess pageant, and dressed me up for the pageant, as well. I looked totally regal in my feather boa, sparkly barrettes, and magic wand. You should have seen me dancing around with them....too funny....

The next morning, John had to go to work, but I saw him briefly beforehand. Then I had a nice breakfast with Danica and Annelie, and then I headed out to take the ferry from Bridgeport, Connecticut, to Port Jefferson, New York (on Long Island).

I arrived in Port Jefferson that afternoon, and wandered around town for a while....it's really cute there. I stayed overnight in an unremarkable town where I found an inexpensive hotel. The next morning, though, I went all the way out to the east end of Long Island, to the town of Montauk. It was fantastic!

I went first out to the lighthouse area, and did a mini-hike through the dunes next to the beach there and watched the surfers. After a while there, I left and drove to Gin Beach, which is along the northern edge of Montauk. The sand there was really nice, and there weren't too many people along that stretch of beach. I sat there for a long time with a book, and just let the sun warm my skin for a couple of hours. The around 4pm, I checked into my motel. It was nothing fancy, but it WAS right on the beach, and there was a terrace outside my room where I could sit, listening to the waves crashing, and watch the sunset over the water. Pretty fabulous, actually.

I met a couple there that evening. Their names were Joe and Karen, and they have to Springer spaniels who kept coming up to me to "say hi". We started chatting, and I found out that they live in Huntington. They asked me what I do for a living, and when it came out that I do emergency medicine, they told me that they have a friend in Huntington who is an emergency physician at North Shore Hospital. Turns out, their friend is one of my former bosses, Gary Rudolph! Such a small world.

Anyway, I loved Montauk and could definitely have stayed there for a few more nights. But on Monday, I had scheduled to stay overnight with my cousins in Great Neck, on the west end of Long Island, and for their scheduling reasons, I couldn't postpone my visit with them. So I ultimately only had one night in Montauk. But it was beautiful and laid back, and I really, really enjoyed it there. Definitely another place that I know I'll have to visit again someday.

I have to say, I've never lived on the coast before. But the water really strikes me in some primal way. There's something about the waves crashing, about the look of the wave tube as it curls over the surface of the water, about the foam rushing up the sand, about the smell of the breeze, about the light over the water, that I feel like I MUST have in my life. Does that mean I need to move to the coast? Or do I need a little cottage on the water as a second home someday? Or do I just need to take frequent vacations to the water? I'm not sure the answer. And I realize that I had the same sort of primal response to the desert, too -- which obviously has little to no water. Not sure what it means, exactly....but there is something about both the desert and the coast which speaks to me on a level that other places just don't reach.