Valentine's Day Adventure Day

Our tradition each year for Valentine's Day was to ride the Roosevelt Island tram to Roosevelt Island where we would go to the Trellis Dinner for diner and stroll along the East River. The view from the tram down the avenues of NYC and the East River is amazing.

The tram has always been special to us since it was a destination on our first adventure day. The desire to ride the tram along with the High Line really were the initial inspiration for the whole concept of adventure days for us.

But this past Valentine's Day fell on a Saturday and having heard some bad news about Trellis we thought let's do something different. So we decided to get in our new Smart Car and drive along the coast of southern Long Island for a Valentine's adventure day. We crossed bridge after bridge after bridge and found ourselves in the little islands of Long Island.


Our first stop on Saturday morning was of course Synagogue, but when we got there at the end of the morning it was closed. It was in a rather barren area and behind a fence, so it was worth a stop. I decided to park with the car in get-a-weigh position though since we were knocking on strange fences.


The road ahead took us beneath the elevated tracks that you see in the distance of the above photo, which was much fun to drive along. The twists and turns though were disorienting enough that I decided then to drive home along a major highway. For now it was adventure day and we'd stop at a fenced in trailer Synagogue along the barren wayside, but we had a long day ahead, so I made the minor sin of making a definite plan even though this was supposed to be an adventure day with nary a plan.


As the afternoon went on and adventuring exuberance burned away the calories within our tummies, we decided finding food would be next on our list. We pulled through the parking lot at Sands because we'd heard of it but really didn't know what it was. The lot was empty and it was dark inside, so we got pack on the road where not too far along we found Reilly's. An independent bar and grill would give us a bit of local color and fill our stomachs that in their growls were at this point having a better conversation between them than us. We parked and walked inside. There were about eight people at an oval bar who all turned to look at us. I looked around the room at the few objects that were there. I was scanning for the kitchen, but the few stools, the bar, the people starring at me. The big bartender with both arms on the bar, the two doors with a man and woman icon on them. These were not a kitchen. The bartender asked if he could help us and Rachel asked if we could see a menu. The bartender answered the nagging question in my mind of where the hidden kitchen was by announcing there was no kitchen. "Oh thanks" we said, "we were looking for lunch" and we turned for the door. Outside a sigh which turned into laughter came out of both of us.




We found a wonderfully creative and tasty lunch down the way at the Speak Easy in Long Beach. They had the menu posted outside and deep fried avocado had us in the door. They also have customizable mac and cheese, so we had them throw in broccoli rabe. I snapped a picture of Rachel looking beautiful and just happened to capture the heart above hear shoulder (it's not difficult to catch the heart in her smile and twinkle in her eye).


After lunch we walked down the shore town street with all the little homes that were identical at one time, but now each so personalized you can hardly tell. Down the little street to wooden steps that led out of the world of pavement and brick. White sand stretched out along the horizon and the ocean who's waves rolled into the silence and receded for a moment of absolute peace.



Rachel went down to appreciate the ocean and the ocean came up to appreciate Rachel.




Along the way we saw the Dairy Barn. We assumed it was a drive through independent Dairy Queen. We pulled up and asked for ice-cream sandwiches since we had randomly gotten those on our first stop during our honeymoon. The guy brought out a box of six. Gosh we said, we don't want THAT many. He looked at us kind of funny and I noticed it was basically a drive up convenience store. I asked for a coffee, we paid, drove out, and had a good laugh.



A review of our trip would not be complete without mentioning that on this chilly February day, Rachel's heated seat was on full and mine was off.



Since the ocean was too tempting and too cold, we hoped back in the car again and encountered the unique traffic circles of Long Island.
Notice the cool Smart Car shadow in the lower left corner.









Then we went across a little bridge to Fire Island park where we drove slowly and looked at the lovely deer. I grew up with deer living in the backyard, so it was a little funny to me to play city person and stop to look at them, but they are graceful animals and it had been a long time since I'd seen one.



Having found Fire Island park we thought maybe we would take the ferry over to Fire Island, but the last one had left for the day. We did arrive just in time for the sunset. And Rob was nice enough not to charge us for parking...




For Valentine's Day dinner we stopped in at a few different places, scanned menus for lovely vegetarian dishes and moved along until we found a part coffee shop, part romantic restaurant called Milk and Cookies which was perfect for us. The spinach and artichoke dip platter was basically a small table that they carried over and the ice cream Sunday was served in a large goblet.


We decided to avoid the windy heathen small roads and take the Kosher highway home.


And it was smooth sailing all the way home.