Vacation in the Hamptons

To celebrate the completion of medical school, Dan decided to vacation like a doctor with a little road trip to the Hamptons. I always thought these were some kind of snobby Northeastern version of the Bahamas, bunch of privately owned islands as seen on Royal Pains or something. Apparently, they're a set of cities at the Eastern end of Long Island. Who knew?

We left on the afternoon of Mother's Day, with a pit stop in Queens two hours into the drive (traffic was a little ugly) because Paul couldn't take driving any more. Once traffic started moving consistently, our little dears dozed off in the back and we were able to enjoy the ebb and flow of the urban sprawl that is Long Island. Finally, we entered an area that had the occasional vineyard or horse farm. It was there that a giant white figure arose on the horizon...the Big Duck.

I have probably told most everyone by now, but in case you've missed the tale...once upon a time, back in the early days of Dan and I dating, we were having a conversation about marriage. I asked when he would like to get married and his response was, "When I've got all my ducks in a row." Later, while visiting the Cornell Campus Store with his friends, Dan spied a shelf of stuffed ducks. Inspiration struck and he shoveled an armful of them into a shopping basket. He had decided to actually give me a duck each time he achieved an important milestone, making a nice visual as he got his ducks in a row. When he shared his idea with his friends, they were intrigued, but asked whether it would be cooler for each duck to be unique.

Thus began our obsession with ducks. He's been quite good at finding a variety of fluffy fowl. From Scrooge McDuck to celebrate paying off student loans to a big yellow fluffy guy for moving into the same metro area, an Aflac duck for closing his injury case, to a little mallard with a tie for getting into medical school. I believe I inquired at some point how many ducks were in the row because they seemed to accumulate pretty rapidly. Thankfully, after four years of dating, he decided the ducks had reached critical mass and proposed (and yes, there was a duck in the museum exhibit he designed for the proposal). While in England, we acquired Jemima Puddleduck to celebrate my first Mother's Day, a daddy and baby duck who sing "Rubber Ducky" to celebrate Dan's first Father's Day and a Giggle Giggle Quack duck with his pencil and paper for successfully completing the Step 1 exam, among others. I haven't counted our collection, but there has to be more than twenty, each unique and fun. When we moved into our new place here on Staten Island it was the first time all our ducks were brought together under one roof.

Thus it was fitting that Dan searched high and low for a duck suitable to celebrate the completion of his medical school. Who knew the perfect one was just a short trip up the road in Long Island? Unfortunately (fortunately?) There just isn't enough room in our place for such a colossal duck, so we snapped some picks to commemorate the event instead.

After a picnic in the shadow of the towering duck at sunset, we headed to the hotel for a good night's rest. The next day, we had the beach all to ourselves (the rainy forecast and cool temps, plus being a weekday may have helped. There were tons of mermaid purses littering the beach - can't remember if those are skate eggs or shark eggs. Seemed a terrible waste in either case. We collected all the Mother's Day mylar balloons that washed ashore - partly because they were pink and thus irresistible to Penny. Then we headed home. It was a perfect little weekend trip and a suitable celebration for Dan's amazing accomplishment.

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