Summer Road Trip 2008 Part VI - Hamptons and the home stretch

We left Staten Island (Thank you Ben for your hospitality!) the following morning and headed for the coast. One thing I need to point out: people on the east coast drive like maniac - we almost got into an accident on the highway! The way we figure is this: In the south, speed limit is set very high at 70 or 80mph, so everyone is pretty much going more or less around the same speed. But here, the speed limit is only 60 - now you have people going at 45 mph and some at 80. Perhaps the solution is to raise speed limit, lift the ban on drugs and underage drinking, then everyone will be happy in a much more extreme and lawless world because we'd have our own sense of safety and law.

The Hamptons are beautiful. Casper is overwhelmed by all the greenery this whole way. I think she likes it much more compared to the barren desert we have.

A stop in a quiet park in downtown Southampton. As we walk towards Main Street, people begin to dress just like the way we imagined they'd be dressed in the Hamptons.

The Hamptons are actually situated right next to the Shinnecock Indian Reservation, which I was told, "You are welcome, but the Pilgrim you brought is not." Wow.

Cooper Beach at the Southampton, 4th nicest beach in the country. Because we had a dog, the beach does not allow pets, we had to move far away from the main crowd. It was as if we owned the beach. The water was nothing compared with the water from Charleston. Definitely below 10 degrees! It was so cold that after staying in the water for more than 30 seconds, I thought we were going to die from hypothermia.

We lazily spent almost two hours sunbathing, only to rush to make it on time for our 4PM ferry reservation that will take us straight to Zack's home in Connecticut across the Long Island Sound. Somehow, the GPS told us that the shortest way is to take two additional ferries across two smaller sounds in order to get to the larger ferry. Little did we know that the path we chose took us an hour and half to travel 20 miles. The good news is that we changed the reservation, caught two more ferries (for someone who's never been on a ferry in a car, it was very exciting), and able to make it on time with 5 minutes to spare (last car on the ferry! If we missed this one, then we would have to wait until 7PM!). Whew! First thing, a cold beer to soothe our fatigue and thirst.

Casper's first time on the boat and smell of fresh sea air. She's such a wonderful dog for this whole trip - no car sick, no seasick, just lots of naps.

To match the theme of water, we visited a few bars in Essex, CT. In one of the bars, they were having seafare night where a band would be singing dirty sailor songs. It was a riot.

As the trip winds down - 15 states, 1 destination, and 3 surviving passengers who have managed not to tear each other's hair out (dog included).

I lazily spent one week in Montreal, meeting up with friends, shopping with my aunt. On my last night in Montreal, Kate whopped up a full course home-made Indian cuisine for a party of 9 because when I asked her for some good restaurant suggestions, she said, why don't I cook? That way, it would be BYOW as well. More trouble to you Kate, thank you so much, for making my last night there so memorable and for one of the best Indian food ever.