Greenwich Point

Memorial Day Weekend--official kickoff for swimming pools, beaches, barbecues, shore houses, cottage rentals and bike shops. H., Sug and I headed to Cos Cob, CT for the day to visit Sis and her husband, Don, and go to their beach at Greenwich Point. Figgy was down at a friend's house in Ocean Grove, NJ, the beachside community I lived in for almost five years before I married.

Cape Cod vs. Connecticut
I don't know how it could possibly have taken me this long to realize that Sis was right. She's often been mystified about our eagerness to trek to the Cape, especially on short three-day weekends--after all, it's 300 miles [about 5 hours or more] from our home.

"Why don't you just come here?" she has said. It takes us an hour or less to get to her condo, the one she moved into when she married Don almost 15 years ago. We take the Garden State Parkway North until it ends, glide over the Tappan Zee [loving that view all the while], hop onto 287 and then skirt onto Route 95. In fact, this is the exact way we begin our drive to the Cape--just add another four hours.

I always thought, well, the Cape is just so different. So wild. The Audubon. The drive-in theater. The fried clams. The Salt Pond Visitor Center, and the breathtaking view from its back terrace. The bridge on the trail behind Coast Guard Beach. The windmills and lighthouses.

And truthfully, part of the charm is the driving, driving to get there--until Route 95N connects with Route 195 at Providence, RI and then the asphalt narrows when you meet Route 6E toward Provincetown. You see cranberry bogs by the side of the road, and pass exits for towns like Mashpee and Sandwich. And then you arrive at our simple family home on Wonderstrand Way, which has no phone, but does have the same stack of books, the same flowered sheets and nubby white bedspread that have been there for 31 years. Streetlights, no. Coyotes, yes. You've really reached the end of the line.

Ship in a Bottle
Tonight I'm looking a little differently at my ship in a bottle--my perfect summer spot, which folds up into nice salty memories that I can tuck in a special part of my mind and see clearly whenever I need them. Sis was right. Greenwich Point is so beautiful. Why haven't we slept over at her condo more? Sure, Figgy and I have, on girls' trips to visit Auntie, but not nearly often enough.

Sis has a Greenwich beach pass for the summer, so today it cost $5 each for me and H. to get a Daily Park Pass from the Town of Greenwich [no dogs allowed--Sug had to wait at the condo].

The nature paths were beautiful.....we saw egrets [just like on the Cape, but shorter] and geese, and kids digging around, pails in hand, in the green grass by the blue water. By the snack bar, there's a glassed-in cabinet filled with hand-me-down books for the taking, and Sis and I each took a paperback. Kids and parents were playing and sunning and eating beach-stand junk food like chicken nuggets and fries. [Wait, this is Greenwich--shouldn't it be sushi and sea-salted sweet potato crisps?]

People were barbecuing. A man was playing guitar. Sis drove us by the sailing school at the park where Don's son, Charles, taught for many summers. We saw bikers, joggers [H. was one of them], lots of chubby babies, beautiful moms, striking dads, one tipping the cigar in his mouth to beckon his little boy to come play.

We stopped at a farmstand. The strawberries smelled heavenly. I got two luscious tomatoes, one for Sis, one for us.

Summer 2010 has only just begun. I'm planning on spending more time with my Sis in Greenwich! And this post doesn't even take into account two very, very important lures: Greenwich Avenue has both a Tory Burch store and a Lilly Pulitzer shop!

Just sightseeing, I tell you. It's all just sightseeing.