September 10, & 11, - Extending the summer...as far as it'll go

Another nautical weekend! Long Island Sound sailing and lakeside dining. This is part of a salty mosaic mural is at Longshore in Westport.

On Saturday I went sailing in Westport with Cat, Lori and Colleen.

Here I am with our beautiful little Hobie Cat.

Lori's ready to hit the open ocean. Or at least Long Island Sound.

Cat takes the tiller...now we just need to get some wind in our sail.

Lori's on the lookout for other boats. Specially ones with cute guys in them.

Me? Sometimes I take the sail, sometimes the tiller, but usually I just like to relax.

Colleen enjoys the view from under her big sun hat.

Later Colleen decided to take a swim off the boat. The thing is though, the catamaran is kind of high and it was really hard to get back on. Lori and Cat came to the rescue though.

and at one point the wind just kind of died, so uhm, we had to be towed.

the tow was actually kind of fun. Oh my gosh, does this PFD make me look fat? It does. Damn.

Despite the lack of wind and a couple of near disasters, we had a great time. And Westport Harbor never looked better.

On Sunday, Nick and I went to the driving range. My swing is really coming along well, someday I might even be able to play on an actual golf course.

...then we spent a lesiurely afternoon at "Down the Hatch" on Candlewood Lake. We dined on Lobster, drank many Coronas and Nick smoked his cigar.

Lunch. Yum!

my third Corona, or maybe my fourth. It was that kind of afternoon.

this little duck was hanging around waiting for bits of bread, which we eventually gave her. She was happy. So were we.

Labor Day Weekend 2005 - A wonderful weekend of beach, golf and gaming

We drove up to Foxwoods on Saturday Nick played lots of golf while I explored the RI coast. Of course we always have a special chocolate confection waiting for us when we arrive. This time it was a graceful swan.

On Saturday while Nick played golf I drove the RI coast. I found a nice seaside cafe in Narraganset and the next day we went there for drinks with our friends...

Exotic babes: Frida, Josephine, Nadine and Patricia

Nick and Anis look cozy...as always.

Of course an afternoon by the sea wouldn't be complete without our water pipe. Nadine got it started...

Here's Frida taking her turn.

...and all the time this spritely gentleman was entertaining us, with local lore and songs of the sea. The next day Nick played golf again, I hung out by the Foxwoods pool. It was a perfect Labor Day weekend!

Saturday, August 27 - A stellar day on Fire Island!

We had the best time! Jordan, Lori, Cat and I packed up and went out to Robert Moses State Park on Fire Island. Isn't this the coolest photo of the four of us? Jordy took it...I have to admit.

Clear blue sky, bright orange umbrella and the Atlantic Ocean...oh, and Lor and Jordy.

Cat joins the gals for a photo with the Atlantic in the background.

Here's me on the beach, all covered up. A bit later on I took almost everthing off, but I can't post those photos here. This is a family blog!!!

There were lots of beautiful kites flying. They looked so pretty against the clear blue sky.

Cat and I posing by the dunes.

Jordy spend lots of time sunbathing.

Later in the day we went over to the bay side which was beautiful too.

...and here I am on the bay with Cat.

At around 4:00 we packed up the MDX, set the GPS for Danbury and hit the road back to CT.

We made a quick stop at Captree State Park where the fishing boats were just coming in. We're hoping to take a fishing trip one of these next weekends. We'll surely post photos of that adventure here.

Saturday, August 20 - It was a sultry summer evening...and we had a great time at our friend Sulai's birthday party!

Here Sulai, Jill and Leyla welcome the assembled guests.

I assigned the photography that evening to my sweet little god daughter, Leyla. She had never taken pictures before but she stepped right up to the task, and did a fabulous job!!! Thanks Leyla.

At first she focused on feet, but that genre quickly became boring.

...then she moved on to portraits. I was her first subject and it would have been a great photo, cept I was having a really bad hair day, oh well...

Leyla soon found a more photogenic and well-coifed subject, her adorable little sister Selin.

...and here's Uncle Sunai and Aunt Nesli!

Leyla really came in for a close up when she snapped this photo of her handsome grandfather Mike, and his Cohiba.

Stop! But of course Leyla couldn't resist this photo of beautiful Carol.

Now, this is interesting subject matter for an aspiring photographer: Steve,lighting up our water pipe. Which, by the way, is filled with perfectly legal apple tabacco.

...and she captured this very candid shot of Nick and Anis. Believe me, they don't get along this well on the golf course.

Anis's wife Josephine looks on, bemused.

This was leyla's most artistic shot of the evening.

Well, we all had a terrific time and I think Sulai had a great birthday. I'm sure he's proud of Leyla's newly discovered photography skills too.