Seven Seas Sharehouse | Kismet, Fire Island

Undaunted by perpetual NYC showers, members of C series braved the LIRR and ferry and continued arriving at Seven Seas all the way until the very last boat.  Cat and several other of the lovely lady members made it out earlier on Friday, and prepared a feast of ginger-soy marinated sirloin and veggie kabobs, chicken thighs, salad and spicy rice. After dinner, members and their guests mixed and mingled, and despite the loss of our E string, Big Dave, Medium Dave, Lauren and Ben serenaded us as we sipped our after-dinner drinks.

Waking up on Saturday morning, Mother Nature had made a complete 180.  It was cloudless, warm, and sunny with a pleasant breeze coming from the west.  The bold once again suffered the slings and arrows of Cat’s gut busting Pilates workout.  The breakfast that followed consisted of Ben’s banana-choco pancakes, bacon, scrambled eggs with cheese and hot sauce and OJ.  Ben had to lag behind the beach go-ers to make a few quick upgrades to the accommodations including dimmers on the upstairs lights (thank goodness he survivied the shock), and picking up and assembling our new bikes!

Down at the beach, the weather was perfect.  Like many first weekends at Fire Island, some folks overlooked the sunscreen, but thanks to our stocked coolers, it didn’t much seem to dampen the mood.  Cat and Ben brought a spread of grilled burgers, dogs and other goodies to the beach for lunch before everyone headed home to shower off before the Belmont Stakes.

Right around 6, we all piled into the neighboring Chance House and were treated to Belmont Breezes, the official drink of the Belmont Stakes.  Bettors from Chance and several other neighboring sharehouses hoped they’d drawn the right $10 horse.  When the dust settled after the exciting race we learned our own Cat and Rachel both had the winning slip, and we walked out of there with everybody else’s money!  Ha!

As soon as we got home, Paul started up on the most complicated Saturday dinner to date- from scratch asparagus ravioli with shrimp alfredo sauce and butter sauteed summer squash.  The meal was to consist of 3 courses – a large antipasto round with cheeses, breads, mozzarella, peppers, artichokes, olives and lots of other stuff followed by the main event.  The spread was pretty breath-taking.  They say presentation is half the battle, and thanks to our many talented sous chefs, the platters had people leaning over the counter getting sneaky hands smacked out of the way right from the start!

After the main course, we busted out a pot or two of industrial strength coffee which we thought would be the prelude to dessert, but was instead the prelude to bigger things.  Once Lauren got up and showed off some of her samba moves, the gauntlet had been thrown down and the whole house joined in a dance party and (despite Milda’s sage advise that lap-dances are best served before cheese platters) some spirited lap-dance performances .  That didn’t stop Blakeley from putting the rest of us to shame with her butt dropping hair-flipping combo moves.

The party didn’t stop heating up there though.  In classic fashion, we all marched out to the bars and had the warm up round of drinks out on the deck at the Inn.  After being there for about an hour, we headed over to the Surf’s Out, which by this time had converted into a full on dance party, and stormed the gates.  The Out held a few real prize winner this week.  First, Sean from Chance House laid down the law about who the next break dance master in Kismet would be complete with several splits and floor moves while wearing sandals. Matt B and Ben held their own, dropping to the floor with grinders and spins. Of course it was Rachel and Tammy who redefined dirty dancing in an enthusiastic and explosive bout of down low gyrations.  Rumors of late night oceanic nudity remain unconfirmed.

Sunday was just as beautiful as the day before.  Lauren helped us get back to our centers by starting us out with a yoga class in the studio. She also spearheaded the production of french toast with maple berry butter sauce and bacon. After grabbing some breakfast, the beach was populated pretty early on.  It was great to just chill out on the beach, playing cards and joking around.  Paul mixed up a Fire Island Iced Tea (which was inexplicably renamed “God Water” at some point later on) that packed a surprisingly solid load of liquid levity.  When you looked over and saw that massage chain had gotten going, leaving early was no longer an option.  Multiple plans to head out on one ferry or the next were postponed and put off on account of it being so pleasant out.

There were 10 of us left when we sat down for a Sunday dinner of Monte Cristos made on the grill with homemade french fries, tomato and baby mozzarella salad in balsamic vinegar and cold keg beer.  After we finished, 7 of us left on the 8:05 ferry, leaving only 3 of us for the night.  We headed home after a quick stroll to a couple of neighboring houses to have a sunset glass of wine and chat with the other holdovers and to introduce Michael (who was planning a week on the beach) to a few other people who would be around that mid-week.  After loading the dishwasher, we busted out the dessert that had been untouched since Saturday and finished off the night with Sambuca.  All in all a lovely end to a very, uh, ‘potent’ Fire Island weekend