Red skies at night, sailor's delight!

What a great weekend!  The weather was spectacular, starting with a massive lightning display on the ferry on the way over that features chain strikes that sometimes spanned 135° or more.  Luckily, the storm passed us over completely for the most part leaving fiery red skies out on the deck as David and Lauren hooked us up with a long marinated batch of grilled deliciousness.   After the meal, we got to drinking as usual and after the bars, there was a round of midnight Frisbee on the beach with Lauren’s glow in the dark disc.

Beach day

The old adage proved true and “red skies at night” welcomed in one of the most gorgeous days in memory on Fire Island.  We broke out the surfboards and were able to catch a few rides with the long boards at a sandbar that has been forming up between Kismet and Saltaire.  The breeze was really light and we all were happy to spend time on the beach under the sun.  Aaron kept us well supplied with a cooler full of drinks.  Steve set up in the studio again and this time, we have tunes down there.

Party Planner

Around 3:00 Krista confidently marshaled a crew to get ready for the main event, the Luau.  We made a lot of improvements even before the decorations, such as replacing that crappy alarm-clock radio excuse for a stereo with a real receiver and a pair of rich sounding JBLs mounted on the walls.  The decorations were a lot of fun and they were very complete too.  Great care was taken in decorating everything from the railings (Tyler was waiting for an excuse to use a staple gun) to the cupcakes (special thanks to Alison and Christa for their great topping idea and surgical application thereof).  Even a coconut bra came into play.

The coconut bro

We all started early sitting around in our leis and drinking extra fruity drinks while rounds of finger foods came out.  Some of the big hits included: bacon-wrapped scallops with cream sauce, (Birthday girl’s fav) grilled sweet corn on the cob with a butter and pepper, and mini pulled pork sandwiches with grilled pineapple that were finger lickin good!  A few things that you may not know about our shares as fun facts:  Tyler makes a mean piña colada and Aaron really pulls off a coconut bra with surprising confidence.

Dave Warton's crew

The guests arrived in waves starting around 7:45 and included Chance House upfront, Blue View Terrace accompanied by party-goers from one or more previous engagements that evening who were kind enough to bring the smorgasbord with them, Cozy-A, and finally Dave Warton’s crew who stirred up the dancing until late.  Wherever there is dancing,  there is Steve and vis-a-versa –so there was dancing.  Hip hop, salsa, even some flamenco moves!

A hawaiian wind blows

Just around midnight, on Cat’s actual birthday we all circled up to wish Cat well and watch her blow out the candles.  We followed it up with a champagne toast and then headed out to the bars.  The next day was another stunning beach day and the hangover was taken care of first thing by Cat and Lauren with some spicy Bloody Marys of which almost everyone had two.  Later that afternoon Tyler stepped it up again with margaritas on the rocks and an original rendition, which I think was his best, the Black Cherry Margarita. yum.

Fruit skewers

By dinner time it became clear that we hadn’t left enough time to cook before the last ferry so we headed to the Surf’s Out for dinner.  We sat outside and the proprietor was nice enough to drag every heat lamp over to the table until he found one that worked for us.  In the meantime, some lady at another table filled with some sauced middle aged women fell backward off her bench and was knocked out cold. Lesson for you, if you’re gonna drink on benches at Fire Island, be sure you take Cat’s Pilates classes to stay upright. (This lady did not look like a Pilates enthusiast).

Opening her gift

Just before we headed back to the house to pick up the dog ad catch the ferry.  Cat opened her birthday present and received a set of pearls she’d coveted on a vacation last year.  Here’s the happy lady modeling them!  All in all a great weekend.  Special thanks to Krista for taking the helm on party planning and set up and to all of you who pitched in to make this the best 30th birthday party [yet]!

See you in Kismet!

We also brought out our next big items including a 4.3 cu ft mini-fridge for mixers, soda and wine to go under the bar and finally, the counter top surfaces to make the bar itself.  After about 3-4 hours with the skill saw, Ben had the bar roughly in place and we will put the final adhesives and finishes on it next Saturday.  That brings the bar to about 65%.  The kegerator will come out next weekend rounding out the drinking “heavy machinery”.

We were so exicted to look at out beautiful new drink station that on the way home, we stopped and picked up martini glasses, wine glasses, enough champagne flutes for house-wide toasts, brandy snifters and a whole pile of other stuff too.

PS: Krista – we have aquired the melon baller you requested – party on!