Fire Island with Daisy and Lola

My usual beach spot is Robert Moses Beach, but this past weekend Daisy and I decided to give Fire Island a try. Fire Island is wonderful beach spot known for its gay scene and beautiful surf, and the beaches are rarely crowded.

An incredible number of New Yorkers head to Fire Island every weekend, so although it is a multi-step process, the transit authority has set up a very streamlined time schedule which was incredibly easy to follow. From Penn Station, you can take the Long Island Rail Road to Babylon, cross the platform and a few moments later take the train to Sayville. At the Sayville station, white vans wait for you a few steps from the platform which take you to the Fire Island Ferry.

A half an hour's ferry ride, with the scent of salt water and nail polish, deposited us on the yacht strewn port of Fire Island with at least two dozen bikini clad men waiting to see the newcomers. The walk to the shore is amazing. A raised wooden platform leads through a forest of bamboo hiding beautiful newly built summer houses, already equipped with amazing fairyland landscapes of tropical ferns and seasonal flowers, arching trees and flower boxes exploding with vines and begonias. Houses are on tiny hills surrounded by foliage, only accessible by somewhat haphazard wooden bridges.

The beach was beautiful and almost completely vacant and the surf incredible. The water carved out a three foot recess in the sand, so we set up our camp on the edge of the cliff and watched the crashing waves from above.

The water, was chilly and refreshing and a good cool off from the sun. Lola was terrified of the water and refused to let it go past her ankles. Most of the afternoon was devoted into tricking the three year old to get close enough to the water for the waves to hit her legs. No easy task.


We had a great afternoon and a picnic on the beach and escaped with only second degree burns.