The Long Island Blog

This Memorial Day weekend was s busy one for me, but I did manage to spend a little time in Southold and Greenport on Long Island’s north fork. Of course I had my camera with me…

Whenever I visit Greenport I park on 3rd St. by the Shelter Island ferry dock and East End Seaport Museum. This saves me the headache of dealing with the impossible parking situation on Rt. 25/Main St..

By chance this time I ended up parked directly in front of the Chowder Pot Pub. I’ve never been there before and the temptation was irresistible. I sat on the deck outside overlooking Greenport Harbor, had a pint and some wings, and enjoyed some live music too. Not bad at all…

Then I took a walk around town and stopped by Crabby Jerry’s. This is right next door to Claudio’s Clam Bar (so close that I could hear their band) and much less crowded. There I enjoyed a pint of Greenport Harbor Brewing Summer Ale while watching the boats come and go and the crazy crowds at Claudio’s.

It was back to Chowder Pot for a quick snack and then back to mom’s house in Southold.

The Chowder Pot Pub.

The band caught me taking their picture.

A creative billboard near the ferry terminal.

My view of Claudio's from Crabby Jerry's.

A man and his miniature horse near a vineyard in Southold. (Very, very cool.)

Black Forest Brew Haus serves up some mighty good German and American cuisine in a friendly and rustic atmosphere. Top that off with a beer from their in-house micro brewery and you’ve got yourself a worthy destination for lunch or dinner.

Continue reading about Black Forest Brew Haus

I went to a wedding at Oheka Castle many years ago and never forgot the place. To call Oheka a castle is not an exaggeration by any means. Oheka is a fully restored mansion that serves as a family home and operates as a hotel/restaurant/caterer.

Loving Long Island contributor Lisa Mancuso recently toured Oheka with castle resident and director of marketing Nancy Melius-Murton.

Here is Lisa’s full report on Oheka Castle.

Bill,

Great idea for a website, I will book mark it.

I grew up in Bay Shore, in the house across the street from the High School (the one next to what was then the high school practice field). Anyway, I left Long Island for good in 1989, but my heart and soul have never been far away.

I live in the Pacific Northwest and carry a great pride of LI. with me every day. Your video really struck home. Nice job.

All The Best,

Joe Killian
A Long Island Boy

How lucky am I that some of my favorite beer is made right here on Long Island, practically in my own backyard?

Jones Beach: A American Riviera is a beautiful documentary written by George P. Pozderec and narrated by Eli Wallach.

In 30 way too short minutes George and Eli take us from conception to completion of one of America’s greatest landmarks. Vintage images, music, film footage and in-depth interviews make this film watchable over and over again.

I highly recommend it.

Read the full review here: Jones Beach: A American Riviera

Well, this storm took me by surprise. I was expecting wind and rain but nothing like this.

It was pretty windy yesterday morning when I got up, and then at around 6:30am I heard a noise and the loud boom of a pole transformer exploding. Fortunately, I didn’t loose power, but the folks on the next block have been without electricity since yesterday morning.

This morning I went for a drive to survey the storm’s handiwork. I cannot believe the amount of damage I saw right in my own neighborhood. If this is any indication of what happened to the rest of the island, then this is a genuine disaster.

Suffolk county is estimating $30 million in damage, while LIPA is scrambling to restore power to thousands of residents. I heard that Con Ed has more outages than they did during hurricane Gloria. Incredible.

Check out these pictures. View them full size to really see the damage. (I’m told that the occupants of the green VW escaped without serious injury.)

The March issue of the Loving-Long-Island.com newsletter went out this morning.

Read Spring is Almost Here.

My Long Island newsletter is a way to stay in touch with Long Island without having to check for blog/website updates all the time. The newsletter comes to you once a month and highlights what’s new on Loving-Long-Island.com, events on Long Island, and includes a photo of the month.

Check out newsletter back issues and subscribe here.

It’s been a snowy winter for us here on Long Island and in much of the country for that matter. If you have to get up and go to work, then snow is a major pain, but even as I’m cleaning off my car and cursing the weather, I am struck by its beauty.

Every flake is different and they’re so small it’s hard to believe they can pile up so quickly and cause so much trouble. (Are there more snowflakes in a blizzard then grains of sand on the beach? It hurts my head to even think about it.) In spite of the inconvenience, the delays, and the aggravation, I always find the time to snap a few pictures.

I love the Great South Bay. Not only is it a source of fun and fish (Bay Scallops, Dogfish), but if you hang out here on a regular basis you can observe some pretty interesting natural phenomena too.

A while back I posted about temperature inversions and sun pillars, and this morning I saw a naturally occurring low pass filter on the water’s surface.

Most folks wouldn’t have noticed, or cared even if they did notice, but as an engineer I find things like this fascinating. So what is a low pass filter and what’s it doing on the bay?

Okay, it’s simple. Think about when you talk to someone through a door. Their voice sounds muffled because the door blocks the high notes (high frequency sounds) and only lets the low notes (low frequency sounds) through. Because the door only passes low frequency sounds it’s acting as a low pass filter.

In music low pass filters are used to reduce hiss in recordings. In your car the shock/spring assembly at each wheel act as low pass filters to smooth out all the small bumps in the roadway.

Back to the bay… The wind had blown a lot of slush into a small cove near the Long Island Maritime Museum. In the pictures below you’ll notice that the slush is wavy, but has no ripples on its surface.

The slush, being thicker than water, can’t move as fast as water does. It’ll let long, slow waves pass through it, but doesn’t move fast enough for small, closely spaced waves. So instead of rippling like the water’s surface the slush gently undulates as waves pass through it. In effect, the slush is a low pass filter preventing high frequency waves from reaching the shore.

Only ripple free waves reach shoreline.

Ripples are gone as soon as they hit the slush. 3 to 4 smooth waves are clearly visible toward the center right. (Click for large.)

Ripple free wave crashing on shore. (click for large.)

And there you have it. What a beautiful winter scene looks like through the eyes of an engineer. Oh, and Happy Valentine’s Day.