A Long Island Surprise

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A Long Island Surprise - Joanne DeVoe, June 23-24, 2004

This is one from the "archives." Before we started the travel blog. We have heard about how nice “The End” of Long Island is, but never took it seriously. Misconceptions regarding traffic, rude people, over commercialization, and the like have lingered like a lead balloon. “Misconceptions” is the operative word. We wound our way back home to Ballston Lake from Long Island by first heading for Montauk and eventually the Ferry from Green Port to New London, CT.

Fortunately, we missed the turn for the old Montauk Highway, the scenic, ocean road. Fortunate because, if we had taken the scenic road, we might have pulled in at Gurney’s or one of the other lovely established resorts along that stretch and missed our delightful stay east of the town of Montauk near Gosman’s Dock.

Gosman’s owns the clean and modest motel we happened into. It didn’t even provide hair dryers and personal care sundries we have been accustomed to leaving out of our travel bag, but it did have a view of the sound and who needs hair dryers when the day will be spent at the breezy shore. The motel was an easy walk - along a roadway or along the beach to Gosman’s Dock.

Gosman’s is a quaint, New Englandish, shopping and dining complex with plenty of free parking and wonderful porch or deck dining. We opted for the grill restaurant, our other choices were a more upscale restaurant or several cafés, ice cream shop, and bars intermingled with the fairly upscale boutiques on the wharf. We had a wonderful view of a working harbor at sunset and delicious food. The seafood, mussels and shrimp appetizers, and fluke and lobster entrees were so fresh that they were likely caught that very day. The Long Island wines impressed to the point that we went hunting for the labels the next day. The coffee was strong and a shared slice of Key Lime Pie was the perfect encore. We commented that we like the Montauk Bay area better than that well-known hooked piece of land off of Massachusetts.

We had a few glitches that were more our fault than a problem with the destination. We headed for the Montauk Lighthouse at eightish in the morning. We thought we would find a diner for coffee on the way. Wrong!. We drove to the lighthouse without seeing a place for breakfast, AND, the lighthouse (which does have a snack bar) opens at 10. We decided to go on and skip the one hundred and thirty something steps to the top of the tower. We headed for town and a nice breakfast. The village of Montauk is interesting. Not as “chi chi” as the Hamptons, but clean and well laid out. It is interesting to note that both our server at breakfast and the bus girl the previous evening both had the “brogue.” After breakfast, we headed out down the beach road, made a few stops and continued on. We had sampled the Atlantic the previous day at a funky (they were actually doing body shots on a cute young thing as we departed) beach bar with great Pina Coladas and free parking. A note on beach parking. Access to many of the beaches is restricted as private clubs of by town permits. We learned that you can get a town permit from your hotelier or innkeeper.

Back to the trip, we traveled back west to North Hampton (the Hampton villages are really grand) and headed for Sag Harbor and through Shelter Island. Interesting old architecture, great views of quaint homes and gardens, occasional sea vistas, and lush foliage kept us content along the way. After two short ferry rides - Sag Harbor to Shelter Island, Shelter Island to the North Fork, we arrived in Green Port.

Green Port is a real gem. It resembles the Perkins Cove area of Kennebunk, Maine. Green Port - which is accessible by the Long Island Rail Road, is a real seafaring town with fishing boats and sailing and motor yachts galore. The shops are very interesting, independent businesses with the owner in the store. We made purchases in an ole time ship’s store, a ladies boutique, a sporting goods store, and the wine shop. We poked in at several antique shops, and enjoyed strolling in a tidy and contained crisscross that makes up the main drag. We watched boats come and go as we ate a seafood lunch on the wharf. We would definitely recommend Green Port to others. Next time we get there, we will put a few of the wineries that are really making their mark on the New York State wine industry, on our itinerary.

After our cool foray in Green Port, we headed for Orient Point where we would take a one and a half hour ferry ride to New London Connecticut. We allowed time for some sunning at the State Park beach at Orient Point. One good thing - we didn’t have to pay the $10 entrance fee as someone in the car was of a certain age. One thing we would do differently. We had sandals (Tevas) which usually work well on the beach, but this was a stony beach and we would bring our enclosed water shoes next time. The playground areas at the Orient Point Beach are delightful for the peanut butter and jelly set, but remember water shoes for the little ones. We hit this spot just right and enjoyed great weather this mid-week prior to the closing of schools for the summer. Who knows what it would be like in “high season.” We would love to try it in September or October. We had reservations on the Ferry that crosses the Long Island Sound to New London, CT. Otherwise we just winged it, and happily so. Note - great place to bring bikes, as the roadways all have wide and safe bike paths; and it’s very flat.

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