Weekend Coffee Share Beach Week

Good morning, Everyone. I am writing to you from my favorite place in the whole world. Davis Park Fire Island is a barrier beach community just five miles across the Great South Bay.  Matt and I have been beach bummers here for 30+ years. We have amassed a posse of beach friends to share common seaside activities (watching the surf come in, bouncing on waves, reading, writing, and collecting beach glass, shells, and sand). Sunrises are amazing on the ocean side. On the bay side, I can sail my sunfish. We clam and view spectacular sunsets.  There is little else to do. No cars to take me away on an errand. One general store. One restaurant. One bar. Kids play, truly play, all day outside. The beach is the best playground for all ages. This is the place I feel grounded and can be still.

We moved into our 2-week cottage rental last Friday. It was a haul without our motorboat. I had to rely on the Davis Park Ferry and my wagons to get everything to the house. I had spent a days preparing and freezing pre-made meals, shopping for groceries, wine, and rum, and clearing out the zucchini and herbs from our home garden. The lists buried the kitchen table.

The best part of our beach week is sharing the time with friends. Matt has kept up with his freshman college roommates. They and their wives spent a long weekend with us. It was a fabulous time beach chillin’, clamming, catching up, and reminiscing. How did 40 years go by so fast?

This upcoming week is our traditional Beach Week. The first week in August is marked for our close friends to vacation together at Davis Park. Shared meals, clamming adventures, perhaps some surf fishing luck, and lots of laughs are in store for all of us this week. The kids are adults now with their own schedules, but some will be joining us. I can’t wait to see my daughter on Sunday night! Every Beach Week our big group plans on a lobsterfest dinner. This year will we will put it together on Monday night. It’s my mother’s birthday as well. She and my dad will venture over to enjoy a beach day and evening festivities. Maybe they will stay the night. Mom gets to have a lobster and we will all have an excuse for cake.

Little else is planned for the week. I know I will have lots to catch up on when I get home. The house, garden, mail, dust, and writing will take up most of my attention those first few days. I will also have to address a diet to work off all the good eating and drinking. But for now, it’s a week of reconnecting and rejuvenating.

Once again, thank you, Eclectic Alli for managing Weekend Coffee Share.

Have a good weekend and week, Everyone. Make it great.

Antoinette Truglio Martin is the author of Hug Everyone You Know: A Year of Community, Courage, and Cancer. The memoir is a wimpy patient’s journey through her first year of breast cancer treatment.

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