16&17.05 - Day 122&123 - Bridgehampton
Thursday 16th & Friday 17th May - Bridgehampton, New York (Day 122 & 123)
A grey drizzly day in Bridgehampton which Jamie apologises for as he heads out to work in the city. The weather doesn’t inspire much other than to let us enjoy a homely day, once the kids have got through their school work.
It’s three minutes in the car to get some groceries from King Cullen, a step above our usual Walmart. We are able to add to our library collection, a small but tidy affair, the kids perching in nooks to delve into some new books.
In the morning we tried to take Lily for a walk but she wasn’t keen to leave the house, but at the second time of asking after lunch she’s happy to skip down the road much to Sienna and Seb’s delight.
Kate, Sienna and Seb snuggle down in the office / den to watch an Octonauts movie before Kate prepares a warming lasagna and garlic bread in time for Jamie’s return from work. For the kids dessert we prepare a Jiffy Pop popcorn - for homes with no microwaves - a tin tray covered in foil; the kernels popping on the gas stove expanding the packaging. As the pack states “As fun to make as it is to eat”.
Friday morning the rain pauses and after school work (of course) and after Jamie heads off again for work, we bundle in the car and drive the 50 minutes to the far tip of Long Island, Montauk Lighthouse standing tall on the headland facing out into the Atlantic.
In the adjoining Camp Hero State Park are the remnants of some huge gun emplacements from World War II and large derelict radar tower from the Cold War.
On the way back home, the satnav guides us - and we follow unquestioningly - down some smaller side roads parallel to the single main road. There are repeated “Look at that house” and “Look how big that house is” - this area is next level and that’s only the houses we can see; many more sit at the end of long sweeping drives hidden behind high hedges. It feels like they’re houses based on TV shows, but of course it is the other way around.
After lunch back home we pop 10 minutes north to Sag Harbor, a small inland sea town. The windows of estate agents further impress upon us the wealth here, I don’t think there was a single house under $3m. The little town oozes money and people flaunting their money.
Back at the house whilst relaxing with Lily we flick through the sales brochure; $80m was the highest For Sale price and the ‘average’ around $6-$10m. Thought I’d found the outlier with one which was only $800k - turned out that was just to rent it for the month of August.
I pop to Watermill to charge the car, stumbling upon a still working watermill from 1644 as I amble around, impressive to see the efficient simplicity of it and smoothness of it.
After Jamie’s return and dinner we settle down to relive our past, thundering through multiple episodes of The OC late into the night marvelling at their effortless parties which was a constant reference for our shared house back in 2004.
