The Quintessential East Coast Memorial Day
I've spent Memorial Day in a lot of places. Miami a few times. Southampton and Montauk back when I lived in New York. Bonnet Shores growing up, in a long line of summers that all blur together now. Each one had its highlight.
Miami is the easy one. Guaranteed sun. Pool by ten, dinner by nine. You stop thinking about the weather entirely.
The East End of Long Island is its own thing. Memorial Day in Southampton or Montauk has a particular crowd. Black SUVs, restaurant reservations made in March, the season clicking on like a switch. Beautiful, but already booked. Lines around the corner to get in at anywhere worth going. Ask anyone who's tried to get into Ruschmeyer's.
Bonnet was the original. Looking for hermit crabs in the tide pools at low tide. Deli pizza, pizza chips and fresh fruit (it's a RI thing) for lunch. If the sun cooperated you stayed all day.
These days the weekend is the Cape with Lane. We drive down and cross our fingers that the rain holds off. We walk the beaches before the real summer crowds get there. We sometimes sneak Wally (Lane's five-year-old Dachshund) on for a stretch of sand. No dogs after April 1st. He gets a quick lap, then we are back in the car.
That is the East Coast version of this weekend, at least the one I keep coming back to. Cold water you can't quite get into yet. Beaches that still feel like yours. A long weekend that hasn't decided what kind of summer it's going to be.
The crowds come next week. This one is quieter, if you let it be.
Paul