Doug and I went to Long Island with some friends from the GSB in September for Mike and Melissa's wedding. Pami, Christine and I decided to make a long weekend of it and flew into Islip Thursday night. Christine's parents were nice enough to let all of us stay at their house. The guys joined us late Friday night since they are all working so hard with their new jobs. Below is a picture of Christine's parents and their home. A special thanks goes out to Lorrayne and George for taking such good care of all of us!
Christine's Mom has the 2 greatest dogs, Cody and Riley. We all spent some quality time bonding with them, well all of us except MJ who had to keep asking, "Which one is the brown one?" Below are pictures of Doug and Cody and then Neel and Pami with Riley.
On Friday while the guys were making their way to Long Island, the girls headed off for a tour of the wineries on Long Island. Now might be a good time to mention how organized Pami, Christine and I are...not only did we fly in on the same flight, we managed to land just ten minutes after her parents at the same airport. The guys on the other hand flew in on three different flights to three different airports at three different times. And they're supposed to be the smart ones?
Here are some pictures from the wineries.
MJ, Neel and Doug joined us later that night at Christine's house and George, Lorrayne and Uncle Ken stuffed us full of authentic New York Pizza and pies we had picked up at a roadside farmer's stand during the day. It was great pie all the way around!
The next morning we continued sampling the local cuisine and enjoyed some New York bagels and cheesecake. (My dress was a little tight that night at the wedding.) After breakfast we loaded up the cars and headed over to North Port Harbor for some sight seeing.
On the main street there was the coolest candy store where we all loaded up on sweets. Doug, claiming he was deprived of useless toys as a child, picked up a little something to amuse himself for the rest of the trip.
From Northport Harbor we headed to Garden City where we met up with Scott and Julie for some lunch before checking into the hotel. We ate at a Belgian restaurant by the name of Waterzooi. They had some pretty great mussel dishes on the menu including a "buffalo wing" version that even made Neel sweat. Now that is spicy!
While we were checking into the hotel, I ran into Sarah, Heather and Katie who were also going to the wedding. (I work with these girls and Melissa at NMH in Chicago.) They had spent the day in the city and stopped to pose for a quick picture to show off their souvenirs.
That night we all traveled to Roslyn, New York for Melissa and Mike's wedding at the Shelter Rock Jewish Center. It was amazing!!! Congratulations Melissa and Mike!
The room where dinner was held had three or four little rooms off the side near our table with really cheesy outdoor scenes painted on the walls with little park benches. The guys all thought the rooms were for making out...it turns out they actually make the best place to pretend you are back in high school at your prom.
And what night would be complete without someone taking Christine's camera and getting a picture with our middle fingers in the air?
A special thank you to Melissa and Mike for sharing their big day with all of us. Congratulations again and a wish to you both for many years of happiness, love and friendship.
© 2005 Erynn Rathburn