have all been great in my life recently. Last weekend saw me in Connecticut, but Westport with Emilie instead of Kent with the family as usual. I did Offbeat the Thursday before, which was fun but very tiring (I got home at 7:30AM). I was worried I'd be too tired to enjoy the weekend, but got lots of sleep and rest Friday and woke up ready for adventure Saturday. And adventure there was! Westport is beautiful, very rich but also very comfortable and homey. It's like a beach town but not the same surfer vibe as California beach towns, more of an outdoorsman country vibe. We felt very outdoorsman as we set up the rusty tent on the beach, it took a while but would prove to be worth it. Me, Emilie, King, Souha and Dan all had a cookout on the beach, made hot dogs, sausages and veggies, enjoyed a beautiful sunset and lots of fun. Afterwards we went back to the tent on the beach for a bonfire (which I expertly crafted, years of fireplace stoking experience at home coming in handy). We had s'mores, beers, and played guitar and sang (a particularly weird and funny Simon & Garfunkel version of "Come and Get Your Love" by Redbone), and had a generally great night. We slept in the spacious tent right on the beach as the tide rolled in and out.
Waking up to waves and seagulls is pretty unbeatable as far as alarms go. It was very hot in the tent, which made the wake-up swim all the better. Lots of flies on the beach but flies are flies, worth it for the water. We got breakfast at a nearby deli, bacon and cheese for me, bacon egg and cheese for them, and fruit galore. Lots of nice convertibles drove by, many old school, and the whole town breathed a similar mindset. If I had to call the atmosphere one thing I'd say disarming.
We played soccer on the sandbars during low tide, as well as some volleyball, and went further into the water to play frisbee. Tides are a funny thing. In the morning we swam out 20 yards or so, comfortably in the water by a buoy. By the afternoon we could walk a hundred, two hundred yards past that buoy, and the water we swam and played frisbee in was only thigh deep. Its interesting to see people having a pizza party in a spot that will in a few hours time be teeming with fish.
That late afternoon we played some music, ate some food, and hung out with pets. Cats, dogs and wild rabbits, to compliment the egrets, crabs, fish, skunks, shellfish and all manner of wildlife. Not to mention the trees. It was the first time in 6 months I'd been surrounded by so much nature. It was nice.
We kayaked in the sunset, my first kayaking I can remember since Alaska. No narwhals here, but the beautiful day made up for it. Striking off into the water on my lone kayak I felt a sincere sense of calm and righteousness. I think I'll need to sail the world someday, I really belong on the water. I feel like an adventurer there, maybe its just the physical demand and proximity to watery peril requiring concentration of the mind akin to a zenlike meditation, but it feels nice. Dan decided to trade his paddleboard for a kayak with Emilie's family friend while they were in the water, to expectedly bad results. The kayak capsized and took on water, unable to overturn, and Emilie and Souha had to tow Dan and the kayak into shore. I paddled by nearby, feeling somewhat bad about being unable to help significantly, but also just having too much fun in the water to impose on myself. Oh King had left during the bonfire the night before. He had financial exams, we missed him a lot.
I left with Dan and Souha on the train back to Grand Central, ran into a Columbia acquaintance on it, and got back home around 11PM. A great weekend all in all.
I'm short on time now so I guess I'll get to the Bands and Bananas later.
Tune in next time for a farewell concert at Prohibition, a night of tequila, jazz and pingpong with my cousin John, and something I'll come up with about bananas.
need a minute or two now to think of a song to capture the atmosphere of my time in Westport.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e7soRMmkUpI
Neil Young, Journey Through the Past
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