Friday, May 29, 2015

This place I call home...

I'm really excited about today's Style Me Bloggers topic!  I'm going to tell you a little bit about my hometown!  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 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!l!!  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...LOL

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, we could be our very own state...we are bigger than many states actually!!  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.


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 am going back in two weeks to see Tim McGraw!  It's sure to be a lot of fun!  There is also smaller outdoor amphitheater further out east where lots of my country faves play!  Last summer 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.  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!!  And I can't wait to make my first visit to the Oyster Bay Brewing Company this summer!!  Whoop! Whoop!!


For me, Long Island really is an ideal place to live.  But if your looking to get off the Island for a while, the City is just a train ride away and Connecticut and Massachusetts are just a short ferry ride in the other direction, so it's really convenient!!  Come Visit Soon!! :)

Can't wait to link up with the other girls today!!  Join us!!



Have a wonderful Weekend!!

Katie

Linking up today, too for Friday Favorites with Erika, Narci and Andrea

18 comments:

  1. I loved this post!! I'm geographically challenged, and even though I was in Manhattan last year (and went to Brooklyn) I had no idea going to Brooklyn meant I was on long island. Don't judge - I'm just a silly Canadian!! LOL. Have fun at Tim McGraw!

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  2. any place with wineries has me interested!!!! Hoping I will get to visit Long Island one day...

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  3. bahahaha, thanks for the info! Your island, that is actually an island, is on my list of places. I'll have to branch out and visit that way when we do our next NYC trip. Fantastic post!

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  4. Love Island is pretty awesome! We're in NYC and have some friends that live out that way. Always fun to visit, and so serene and beautiful.
    -Erin (No Bohns About It)

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  5. Ok, I have a silly question...if Long Island is an island, are there bridges out to it or do you have to take a ferry? You mentioned "a short train ride away" to get to the city but do you have to take a ferry first? Clearly I've never been to Long Island! Also, since you grew up there, do you speak with a New York accent?!

    ~Sheila @ Making the Most of Every Day

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    1. Yup....to get into Manhattan (also an island) you do have to go over bridges! CT is a ferry ride across the Long Island Sound. Typically commuters who work in NYC take the train. Come visit me soon! I'd love to have u!! :)

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  6. I want to visit!!! My husband's best friend used to live in Queens when he worked in the city and then moved to Scarsdale for a bit before moving away. I loved getting to visit both of those places when he lived there! So want to go back!

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  7. Fun! The whole boroughs thing...so strange. A friend was trying to tell me about it a couple of years back. Makes things so confusing to someone that doesn't live there :) I need to come visit you, that would be fun!

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  8. I think we would have a great time together if I could only come up for a visit. Your idea of fun is definitely the same as mine. A Kenny Chesney concert on the beach? Yes, please. Wineries and breweries and we could talk about books and libraries? Oh yeah, baby! Sounds like you have found the perfect place for this solitary chapter of your life. XO

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  9. Sounds like an awesome place to live! Can't complain when you're surrounded by wineries and beaches ;)

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  10. I had no idea that Brooklyn and Queens were part of Long Island - and I didn't know I was so close to you last weekend! Long Island looks like a lovely place to live!

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Thanks so much for taking the time to post comments! They make me smile so big!