I was so excited to head to The Hamptons because I’ve watched way too much Gossip Girl but the way the weekend on Long Island panned out, I fell in love with the North Fork rather than the Hamptons. But before starting researching this trip I had no clue that Long Island had two forks at the end of it – The Hamptons side and the North Fork side. I guess it’s the ‘rich’ side and vineyard side.
We used some of Jim’s hotel points from his India trips to book a hotel in the middle of Long Island, about a 45 minute drive to both sides of the end of Long Island – there was a hotel closer to the bits but we needed to save some points for NYC so we compromised. But the hotel was lovely and it had a fab pool that I made good use of. The best thing about using points is you quite often get a little upgrade and this stay was one of those times, we got bumped to a bit of a bigger room! Thanks Hyatt!
On the first night there we were trying to find somewhere local to walk to to eat, but it wasn’t really a residential area so our best option was a TGI’s. On the map it looked like a short walk, but obviously it was America and people don’t really walk places so we ended up wandering down the side of a motorway and dodging sprinklers! We also had literally the worst waitress in the world, but that’s by the by now!
The next day, in glorious sunshine, we got in our car and headed out to the ‘North Fork’ towards Greenport, because during my Pinterest research I’d read about a cute little oyster house I wanted us to try. Our drive took us past so many vineyards that it made me wish we’d been staying closer so Jim wasn’t driving and we could have stopped in. But we had to keep driving, right to the end of the island.
Greenport after a bit of a wander round reminded me quite a bit of a Cornish town, that would be my closest comparison in UK terms, but with much wide roads! Although, it doesn’t take much to have wider roads than Cornwall does it?
After a little wander round, some looking at boats (I am a sucker for some looking at boats) and my excitement at seeing the Hamptons Jitney we found the Little Creek Oyster Farm, which is where I’d read about. They do a shuck your own option, which kind of felt like the thing we should do. I saw we, but I was going no where near that knife, especially not when the protective glove came out! So we sat in the sun for an hour, ate oysters, drank local beer and chatted with our table mates about cameras, where to go in New York (us) and trips to castles in Scotland (them).
Our next stop was the beach. We drove out to Orient Beach State Park, which meant driving pretty much to the end of the fork, then down a little spit to the beach. It was a sunny Sunday and the beach felt pretty much deserted, save for a few people having a BBQ in the park behind it and a whole bunch of washed up jelly fish. I know we were there just out of season, but I couldn’t believe how quiet it was!
After I’d filled my pockets with shells, and we’d spent some time hunting for turtles (we saw none!) we got back on the road to a mini golf place that Jim had found on Google Maps. Our second gold course in a few days. The course we found was so cute – such a different style to the one we’d played in Amish Country. Once again, even my fluke hole in one couldn’t win me the game, but in all honesty I have more of a hit and hope approach that can’t really beat his methodical game.
Our evening was spent eating more seafood at a Greenport institution, Claudio’s before heading back to the hotel.
The next day we woke up to find the glorious weather we’d been experiencing for the last 10 days had done a complete U-turn and it was absolutely teeming it down. Not exactly beach or seaside town weather. Which meant it was a laundry morning. The thing about going away for 3 weeks is that we have to do fun things like laundry ever so often and a rainy morning seems like the perfect time to do it.
I was so excited to see The Hamptons, but the torrential rain didn’t really make for great sight seeing, so we drove down the South Fork looking for Ina and Jeffery, all the way to Montauk looking for Lobster Rolls. We missed lobster roll season in Maine by a few months and it turns out that the Monday before Memorial Day isn’t the best time to hunt for lobster rolls! But on the great roll hunt of 2017 we did swing by the Montauk Point Lighthouse (and we know I love a good lighthouse!), found a brewery to buy some watermelon beer from, and drove around looking at the fancy ass houses. Luckily, thanks to the power of our hotspot wifi and Instagram we found a cute little place that sold Jim a Lobster Roll and me some Moules, in Sag harbour!
I think I took about 8 photos all day because we barely left the car. But I can show you the bath of lobster that we got to hangout with over a late lunch!
Our adventures in Mini Golf continued with a trip to a monster golf course – a glow in the dark monster golf course, complete with glow int he dark balls and neon friendship bracelets!
The next day we were heading to New York, but as we couldn’t drop the car off until later in the day, we found ourselves an outlet mall for Jim to spend a fortune in and pretty much the best art deco diner for a trip back in time and some people watching!
Despite the rain, we had a fun time on long island. As always I wish we’d had more time to explore, but I think I’ll always feel like that – especially in beach side places! My big disappointment is that I didn’t bag myself a ‘classic’ buoy! They were selling them at the beach we went to and I still regret not stopping for one!
So, what do you think of our few days on Long Island? Have you ever wanted to go?