Morning in Mystic, ferry to Long Island, and first night in NYC - Sunday, July 19, 2009

Morning in Mystic, ferry to Long Island, and first night in NYC - Sunday, July 19, 2009

We woke up early and took a wrong turn on the way to Mystic, CT which turned out great. We went to a Submarine museum and actually went into a submarine. We drove through modern Mystic (not so modern), and then went to Historic Mystic Seaport. Al and I were surprised to learn that it was like a museum, we thought it was just shops, etc. In fact, it is a port city with buildings that were preserved and then integrated with new exhibits, etc. It was really nice. We rented a row boat and rowed on the Mystic River. The kids really enjoyed it. We kept losing control of the boat so "Chaser" had to come out and rescue us twice.  Dad was not too happy.

We left there around 3:00 p.m. so we could drive over to New London, CT for our 4:00 p.m. ferry to Long Island, NY. Jake was very excited about driving the car onto the ferry. We were on the ferry with 300 boy scouts ages 11-18. It was cool to see so many in their uniforms. Al, of course, interrogated them about badges, what they were doing, etc. and wants to put Jake in it as soon as we get back to Miami. I agree, it would be a good, non-typical Miami thing to do.

The ferry left late and took about 1 hour 15 minutes. It was super hot in the interior part of the boat. I was so hot that  I went up to the top deck and sat in the sun because at least there was a heavy wind blowing. We arrived in Orient Point port (Montauk port was not available with cars). We had to drive down to a fork in the island and then turn to go east to Montauk. We never made it to Montauk (to at least see it) because we drove through South Hampton, and East Hampton and then it got dark. It wasn't worth continuing to Montauk beause it would be too dark.

We drove around the towns as they have beautiful shops and cute restaurants. We got take out from a Mexican restaurant called La Fondita. It was delicious. We drove to a public beach, in the middle of a neighborhood with beautiful homes just like in the movie "Something's Gotta Give." Ana wanted to find a place that looked like that.  We flew a kite on the beach, the kids played Kadima, and I took beautiful photos. The sky was a gorgeous with layers of pink, orange, and blue...perfect! I took pictures of the homes on the beach (just like in the movies) and then got awesome shots of a plane flying right over the shore. It was a spectacular sight and a perfect evening.

We drove through Long Island to New York City (NYC). We arrived in NYC around midnight. We needed to arrive earlier because the girl that is staying at Tita's house (Nicki Borges, sister of Gabi and Manny's friend Javi) had to go to work at 5:00 a.m. It was embarrassing to arrive so late, but we couldn't help it with all of the traffic. At that time, we had to unload the car and take everything up. It was exhausting. However, it felt great to know we would have five whole days in one place and time to relax.