A Sunny Saturday in Northport

If you spend any time with me, you’ll know that I’m a Boston-boy through and through.  I love my Sox and Pats and B’s and C’s.  I think the world revolves around the Hub.  And, because of that, I tend to be a tortured soul since I live on Long Island.

I don’t tend to see what’s so great about New York or New Yorkers.  I’ve even gone so far as to generalize all of them as wimps because New York was the only colony out of thirteen that abstained from the vote for independence.

But, even I have to admit that life down here isn’t all bad.  I have met some great people – shocker, some of them are even native New Yorkers! – and been to some very cool places.  Northport, NY fits into that latter category.

I had always heard about little waterside town that can trace its farming and fishing roots back to the mid-1600’s from friends and colleagues. It was supposed to be this quaint little town on the Long Island Sound that was a great place for a stroll on a summer weekend afternoon.

Up until recently, I had never had the chance to go.  I finally got around to it on Memorial Day weekend and can say that I really enjoyed it.

My wife and I packed up our twin girls and headed on up.  The town itself is only about a twenty-minute drive from our house, but there are no main roads that go there.  Perhaps that in and of itself is what has allowed Northport to maintain its rustic charm all these years.

We parked near the water and began to walk around – the harbor is right there. So is a big grassy park area right near where all the boats come in and out.  It’s a perfect people-watching area.

We meandered through there, noting that it was one of the few places on Long Island that encouraged you to bring your dogs.  When we finished taking in the scenery, we walked down Main Street.

Shop after restaurant adorned the sidewalk.  Nothing was a chain – everything seemed to be owner-operated.  We were lucky enough to find a swing set that our girls had a blast on.

After that, we took a walk deeper into town and found a great ice cream place called Lics.  Check out the write-up I did on EatingEverywhere.com about it.  We strolled back to the park with our ice cream in hand and proceeded to spend about an hour in a shaded, grassy area just enjoying our time together.

Overall, our day in Northport was probably one of the top five days we’ve had as a family so far.  I’m very much looking forward to going back and exploring more – some of those restaurants looked delicious!