Beach Day

Happy Fathers day to the best, decent, grumpiest, most thoughtful,...oh so life with two kids is challenging but as I have said before, we do our best. I don't think we are perfect but I am sure that my daughters will tell you that their "daddy bear" is the best daddy a girl could ever have. So we celebrated him on this day, trying to create the ideal, the relaxing, somewhat serene experience of spending a day in an unfamiliar location with nothing but food and ourselves.  It turned out to be a glorious day, we somehow eluded the incessant traffic on the cross Bronx expressway and made it to the Sands Point Estate in an hour. I didn't know what to expect but I had only heard great things about this getaway and the employee I had spoken to when I called was very pleasant so I was encouraged. When we arrived, we drove through large gates with a giant "G" sculpted into the gate, you could see the Guggenheim Estates almost immediately. There were mansion structures immediately visible on our way down to the water, the Hempstead house and Castle Gould and then further in The Falais a French eclectic castle. Arie especially liked the fact that there were castles since she really believes she is a princess.

Getting down to the water, we were rather shocked at the little strip of sand along the Long Island sound with a great blue sky view across to Westchester. The water was cold, the smell of the sea was sharp but once we settled in and laid out our picnic, the toys came out and everyone began to just relax and play. We walked along the beach, the girls made friends with other little kids and some ladies who had set up beside us. We put on some music and had some lunch (with a bit of sandy crunch in everything..you can't avoid it at the beach). The kids attempted building sand castles, collected rocks and continually sprinkled me with water out of their little watering cans.

After several hours, we packed up happily and bid farewell to a really nice day out. The kids got ice cream from a really sweet ice cream truck and as we got to the car Arielle told me this had been the best day of her life...wow..coming from her, that was a gift. I don't believe it really was the best day of her life but maybe pretty close..