A Return to Fire Island, Long Island, New York State, US - 30th March 2007

For a complete contrast to the frenetic life in Manhattan, Nosher and Isobel head off to see Nosher's old school chum Phil and his family in Maplewood, New Jersey. From there, after a night playing poker, we head over to the beach house on Fire Island for a bit of relaxation in another world. It's also a chance for Phil to take his new eBay purchase - a rather cool motor boat - down to a marina near to the ferry terminal, and for us to get stopped by a real traffic cop, for towing a trailer on an expressway. Fire Island itself is a sandbar island about half a mile wide and 30 miles long and is just off Long Island. It has virtually no traffic, on account of there being no direct vehicular access, but is criss-crossed by the boardwalks that connect all the individual clapperboard houses.

next album: A Trip to The Barbican, Plymouth, Devon - 6th April 2007
previous album: Liberty Island, A Helicopter Trip and Madison Square Basketball, New York, US - 27th March 2007

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Isobel has a beer on a boat

Isobel has a beer on a boat

Phil and Isobel chat

Kicking back

Kai and Isobel play piano

Phil's boat in the drive

Phil tows his boat up the road a bit

The Bronx Whitestone Bridge

Powell's Cove, and a distance view of Manhattan

A solar halo is spotted

There really is a Hicksville

A trucker's dog peers forlornly out of a window

The Bay Shore Marina

We scoff hot fried clams and shrimp on the ferry

Phil sets up a massive chess game

Isobel plays as Nosher's queen in a game of chess

Chess on the sand

Atlantic seafront

Isobel on the empty beach

Blue sky, white sands

A stack of discarded fencing lies on the beach

A fire hydrant is observed by a yellow statue

The chess pieces are scattered

Lolly's beach house

Sunset over the old pier

Close up on the pier

The end of the jetty states the obvious

The lighthous light reflects on the water

Phil and Isobel mill around on the pier

The pier is covered by shells broken by seagulls

Phil takes us for a quick tour of the fire station

The house in the dusk

A fence under the moonlight

Moonlit beach under the barf-glow of Manhattan

Orion's belt, and an SUV on the beach

A beach house stands on the edge of the beach

A long exposure as an SUV drives past

The fenced-off path leading to the beach

A plane takes off from JFK

The giant chess set's pieces lie in the moonlight

Isobel in the beach house

Lolly gets something out of the fridge

Isobel looks up inside the lighthouse

The view over the west of the island

The island police station

The towns of Kismet and Saltaire

The bridge to the west of the island

A couple walk along the boardwalk

The remains of an old lighthouse

The lighthouse lantern

The way down

A bench in the lighthouse

Fire Island lighthouse

An island deer, aparently considered a pest

A Virgin Atlantic A340-600 parked at Heathrow