Home is Where the Heart is

I was really excited that today Show and Tell Tuesdays at Momfessionals is all about sharing my hometown with you!  Last Spring, the Style Me Bloggers (now the gals of The Blended Blog!)  got together and shared the same.  Today's post is a little bit of an update since then!  Here's a little peek into this place I call home...  

If you've been following my blog for any amount of time, you've read about my adventures in buying a home and my solitary life in this new (or at least new to me!) town.  A big reason I began blogging was to document my living alone for the first time.  Read my first ever post here!

It's rare that I leave my little 3 mile radius.(LOL...but really though!!) I live in walking distance of the school that I work at, the train station, and right down the road from Main Street!  (I just love that I live in a town with an actual Main Street!!) It works for me!!!  And my town is so much fun!! Lots of shopping, restaurants, concerts, the Beach, and the Great South Bay! I've blogged about some fun things I've done in town here and here.  It really is one of my favorite places and just pretty perfect for me!!!

But since I know not many people will know my town itself, I thought I'd tell you more about this Island that I live on instead!! Long Island may ring a bell for some of you.  When people hear Long Island, lots think of the Hamptons (Thank you Kardashians and Revenge!).  I DO NOT live there...

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I've lived on Long Island in the state of New York for my entire life. Long Island is that "fish-like shape that hangs off of New York on a map!  And YES, Deena we are actually an island...surrounded by water on all sides.  We stretch out into the Atlantic Ocean on one side and the Long Island Sound on the other.  Long Island is so large and overpopulated with 8 million people that, we could be our very own state...we are bigger than many states actually!!  Even larger than the countries of Ireland and Jamaica, too!

Long Island consists of four counties, from West to East. Brooklyn, Queens Nassau and Suffolk. Because Brooklyn and Queens are considered boroughs of New York City, a lot of people just count Long Island as Nassau and Suffolk.  And  Montauk Point truly is THE END.

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Long Island has beautiful beaches both on the North Shore and the South Shore.  I live on the South Shore.  Our beaches are smooth.  The North Shore is more rocky. There are 150 beaches on the Island, including Fire Island...just a short ferry ride away.

Jones Beach is in Nassau County, further west, from where I live, but it's a  place I visit in the summer for both sun and fun.  The Theatre at Jones Beach is the only concert venue right on the beach.  When I saw Kenny Chesney there a few years ago, high tide came right up under the stage and all the people in the first row sections got soaked.  Kenny said he had never seen anything like it. I went to a bunch of concerts there last summer and it's always a lot of fun.
There is also smaller outdoor amphitheater further out east where lots of my country faves play!  The summer of 2014 was a summer of concerts at both venues and I thought to myself numerous times, how lucky I was to live in a place that had such great outdoor spaces.  I went to tons of shows at both venues and had a blast. Read more about that here!

Long Island is very historical, too.  The homes of President Roosevelt, Poet Walt Whitman, painter Jackson Pollack and the Vanderbilt Family are here.  The Long Island Children's Museum, Old Bethpage Restoration Village and the Long Island Aquarium, Planetarium and the Long Island Game Farm are super fun and educational places to visit. We also have our own AAA baseball team, the Long Island Ducks.  There Stadium is 15 minutes from me!! Ok, the teacher in me is coming out...

Long Island has a number of wineries on the North Fork and the South Fork.  It is fun to spend the day wine tasting and listening to music at the different wineries in the summer.  The number of Craft Beer breweries on the Island has grown too!!  Blue Point is probably the most widely known, but there are breweries in Oyster Bay, Greenport, Riverhead and Montauk, just to name a few.  My town alone boasts 2!!  My Bestie and I had a great time at the Oyster Bay Brewery last summer!  You can read all about it here!


For me, Long Island really is an ideal place to live.  It's home...simple as that!! Come Visit Soon!! :)

Katie