Beach time in the Long Island!
As a happy accident, we had to go to New York, so to make a last minute hotel reservation I looked into Long Island. Manhattan can get very expensive and busy. There is all sorts of public transportation in New York and getting to the city was not a problem on the train from Long Island. It was also worth the location.
Most people who visit New York base their entire trip in the city and forget how close it is to the ocean, and where there are oceans there are beaches! We were determined to spend a day on the beach since we never get to see the ocean. After driving around, we found Ocean Parkway and started to follow the signs. Finally after smelling salty air and hearing waves we saw it. We pulled into a parking lot that looked relatively empty and was far enough down the sand area. There are stories about this beach being packed full of people and you can tell that it must be true sometimes because the parking area was massive! It was a beautiful beach with not a lot of people there. The walk down from the car was a bit far, but it was relaxing once by the water. There was a hot dog food truck parked at the back of the beach where we got hot dogs and chips. We walked down the stretch of sand and picked up unique seashells with all the kids, and even saw a little shark washed up on shore at the end. The beach was cleaner than I expected on the north coast. And the sun was shining beautifully!
