The Baptism, Part 5: Tourists in Port

As usual, it took forever to get out of the house this morning. We decided to go to Port Jefferson (or simply "Port," as the locals say) to look at the boats, play in the playground, and do a little souvenir shopping. That last item on the list is so not what Barb and Andy used to do, or ever in the past would have done, that it gives me pause to even write it. But souvenir shop we did, and with some success, scoring a t-shirt for Lily (with a matching one for Elizabeth, of course) and a couple of post cards for Lily and Riley. Daddy also got himself a board game to play with the adults up in the Adirondacks. (Settlers of Catan, if you're curious. I really wanted Arkham Horror, but it was 80 bucks and the guy at the store said it takes an hour just to set up.)

But I'm getting ahead of myself.

We couldn't find a normal-type store (e.g., CVS or Rite Aid) where we could buy a stroller. It was warm and humid, which makes carrying a three-year old less than ideal. Not to Elizabeth. "Daddy is kind of like a stroller," she mused. I whipped out the trusty Droid X to activate its smartphone powers to find us a drug store and as soon as I fired up Maps it crashed. Plus, Elizabeth didn't want me looking at my phone, she wanted me holding and talking to her. These smart phones are awesome... in theory.

We gave up on the quest for the labor saving device and dove into a Starbucks. Barb was utterly baffled by the Frappucion menu. Last time she ordered a Frappucino, it was just, "I'd like a Frappucino, please." Now there is an entire menu of flavors, "coffee" being only one of the many options.

Refreshed, we headed down to the docks, saw a ferry (Elizabeth was puzzled by the homonym of "fairy"), played in a park with a cooling fountain (Elizabeth had to strip down to her undies, as we had no swim suit and no change of clothes), then went to a tiny beach where we sheltered from a brief shower under the pier, then collected and buried seashells. After a quick snack of fried seafood, we did some souvenir shopping (as detailed above), and spent thirty minutes or so playing in the playground.

Good times.


Here's Andrew talking to Uncle Mark while holding Suzanne.






Oregonian in Long Island.


Sheltering from the rain.


The Spirit of Freedom. Or something. She sure is photogenic.