Sun in the sky

'Cause you can't stop the motion of the ocean or the sun in the sky

I woke the next morning and followed my routine from the previous day – I did some blogging/website stuff, had a swim in the pool and then had a coffee and breakfast. As I was getting my breakfast Eric told me that they had got some English muffins in for me. He asked if we had English muffins in England. I said that we did but that we just called them muffins. Later that morning Andie came over to the house to pick me up. We chatted for a while with J&E before heading into Huntington. We stopped off for lunch at a Mexican restaurant called Besitos and I got to experience tableside guacamole making for the first time ever. Our waiter wheeled his trolley over, which had all the ingredients he needed, asked us how spicy we liked our guacamole and set about making it. He was pretty quick at making it and it was amazing guacamole. I could have made a meal out of just that but I had some mixed tacos too, which were also very tasty.

'Cause you can't stop 

After lunch Andie drove us out to the Nassau County Museum of Art. There was an exhibition of photos by Richard Avedon currently showing. I have to admit I had never heard of him but as soon as I saw some of the photos I recognised his work. As we made our way through the exhibition we passed a large group of elderly women, being given a tour of the gallery. As they were being told about the life and work of Richard Avedon in front of a self-portrait, we stopped to look at a photo of Sophia Loren. Andie recounted to me the story of when she was young she went over to a friend’s house after school and her friend said “Don’t be alarmed but my mum is kind of famous”. The mother then came out of the kitchen to ask the kids if they wanted a drink. The mother was Sophia Loren. I started to tell Andie what a fantastic story that was when one of the little old ladies on the tour, who was stood near us rather than with her tour group shushed us and tutted very loudly. It was the first time on my trip that I had been told off. I had to bite my lip to stop me from laughing out loud and struggled to control my giggling fit.

After the museum we drove to pick up one of my best friends from back home, Simon, who was over in NYC on holiday and was coming out to Long Island to see J&E too. It is through Simon that I know J&E. We passed a couple of school buses on the drive over and I asked Andie if the schools had not finished for the holidays. She said that they had and that the buses were probably on their way to camp to pick up the children. I explained that back home camp meant an effeminate gay man rather than somewhere to send your kids over the summer. I told her that my upcoming host in Nashville managed a store called Imogene + Willie and that they had a t-shirt with Camp Willie on it and that I was definitely buying it for myself when I got to Nashville.

We collected Simon from the station. It was great to see him and we quickly caught up on the gossip from back home. I joked with Simon that he had only come over to New York to make his part in my blog (and the subsequent book, film and musical) bigger. I told him that I might not mention him at all and instead just put a sentence at the end saying “I also caught up with an acquaintance from London”. He didn’t look best pleased with that suggestion.

We stopped in at a Barnes & Noble to have a mooch round and to cool down in their air-con. As we wandered the aisles Simon and I pointed out some hilarious titles to each other (my favourite spot was The Menopause Cookbook). Simon turned to me and said “I can’t believe the number of totally crap books on sale. If 80 Gays were a book they would sell it here”. He then frantically backpedalled saying that he hadn’t meant that 80 Gays would make a crap book. I think he was getting even with me for the acquaintance from London comment. As we continued our wander around the store we found the British section of the DVDs. Andie browsed through the titles and declared British television to be either “period drama or mystery shit”. It’s a pretty accurate summary from the selection that they had on sale.

Me with my acquaintance from London

We went back to Andie’s and collected her husband, Michael, and the four of us went for dinner in Huntington. We had dinner at a place called Vitae, which was fairly new. The food was great and we enjoyed a couple of cocktails over dinner too. They were quite strong and none of us could keep a straight face when Simon very seductively asked for a second flirtini from the maître d'. Our waitress had an uncanny resemblance to Janice from The Muppets which made the evening all the more interesting. On the walk back through Huntington we spotted a sign in a shop window that read “Camp stationery is here” which made us all laugh. I got a photo of it & then Andie said that Simon & I should have our photo taken in front of it. Andie duly took the photo and I checked to see that it was all right. I had managed to get my head in the way so that the last e in here was obscured so the sign now looked like it read “Camp stationery is her”. Cue much more laughter and some bemused looks from the locals of Huntington.

The motion of the ocean 

The next day J&E, Simon and I headed over to Fire Island for the day. We drove up to Sayville, had a spot of lunch and then got the ferry over to The Pines, which J&E said was the gay end of the Island. The other end of the Island was the lesbian end, and rather aptly named Cherry Grove. The ferry over was fairly quick and the beach was pretty quiet. We settled ourselves down for an afternoon of relaxing. I had a quick swim in the sea, which was cold rather than cooling, and then laid out in the sun reading my Jeffery Archer. I put it down a few times to people watch. I also dropped it once when a rather buff man in a very small red Speedo walked by. It was a great way to spend the afternoon.

Or the sun in the sky  

Sunset

As evening approached we walked through the dunes (there was nothing going on in them despite what I had heard about them) and across to catch the ferry back from Cherry Grove. We had a drink while waiting for the ferry and then boarded. The return journey was timed to perfection to see the most stunning sunset and moonrise. I snapped plenty of photos and took in the lovely vista. The car ride home was taken up by Simon playing Girls Aloud and Sophie Ellis-Bextor and singing along. We had pizza for dinner and then I had an early night. I find that the days where I don't really do anything energetic are more tiring than the days I cram lots of touristy stuff into.

Moonrise

The next morning I packed my suitcase yet again and said goodbye to J&E, thanked them for showing me so much of Long Island & headed to the train station with Simon to catch a train back to New York City. 

“The motion of the ocean or the sun in the sky” 
Lyrics from You Can’t Stop the Beat from the musical Hairspray