So the holiday weekend is now behind us, and aside from Hurricane Arthur battering the East Coast Thursday night and all day Friday, I would have to say it turned out to be a beautiful couple of days.
To kick off the holiday weekend I went to see my first Long Island Ducks game in Central Islip, N.Y. on Thursday evening. I must admit, I’m not one for watching sports outside of the Summer and Winter Olympic Games, and I know practically nothing about baseball. But it was a fun evening. My friend Claudia had VIP tickets and had been to a Ducks game before, so she showed me the ropes. The turnout for the game was excellent, despite the ominous forecast calling for heavy rain and thunderstorms that evening as Arthur made his way near Long Island. We had great seats by third base. After watching a bit of the game, we walked around, checked out the indoor VIP lounge, and saw the Ducks mascot, Quacker Jack, keeping the crowd entertained.
The highlight of the evening was the much anticipated fireworks show put on after the game. Unfortunately, what began as a slow drizzle turned into a deluge around 9 p.m. A rain delay was called, which lasted approximately 30 minutes and left everyone huddled under awnings or their umbrellas. Much to the delight of the crowd, an announcement was made that they would do the fireworks in the pouring rain! The show was spectacular and totally worth getting soaked for. I managed to get a few great shots of fireworks lighting up the dreary, dark sky.
The weather in these parts was pretty torrential on the Fourth of July, and local firework shows got postponed. Even though the storm seemed to have lifted by Friday evening, Long Island had seen a good 24 hours worth of rain. So this year, there was no Fourth of July tradition to be had. Instead I spent my day at home relaxing – something I really haven’t done in a while. The evening called for indoor grilling of hot dogs and hamburgers on my Cuisinart Griddler.
Thankfully the weather cleared and we had a beautiful summer weekend here. On Saturday, I went paddle boarding in Saint James, N.Y. More to come on that experience later this week.
The fireworks that were scheduled for The Fourth in Port Jefferson, N.Y. were rescheduled for Saturday evening and advertised on major media outlets on Long Island as taking place on a July 5th. I was so excited to see a Grucci show, especially one by the harbor. Since I figured it would be chilly in the evening, my attire for the night consisted of my white Mossimo pants, a navy tank and a nautical striped blazer that I recently purchased from H&M.
After attempting to secure an appropriate seating venue, and seeing crowds of people begin to claim their spot for the fireworks, I found my place on the dock facing Conneticut. I was not anticipating being chased off the docks slightly before 9 p.m. so they could be closed up for the night. Spot number two was a slightly less attractive option and certainly more crowded. I found the flattest rock I could find and laid my beach towel down — 9:00 p.m quickly turned to 9:30 and then 10:00 p.m. and still no fireworks in the night sky. It was fair to say the crowd of a few thousand by this point was growing restless and impatient – and I was too! By 10:15 p.m., with still no signs of activity except for the fireworks being shot off across the Long Island Sound in Connecticut, I called it a night and endured the single-lane ride out of Port Jefferson. Clearly a Grucci show was not in my future this year!
Aside from some mild disappointments, mainly weather and apparently scheduling errors, I enjoyed my Fourth of July this year.
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