Day 11 - Montauk

The morning dawned clear and calm. Not that I saw the dawn - I again slept soundly, and enjoyed a leisurely morning, including cereal and several cups of tea, and chatting with victoria and kerrie, and later Sue G.

They were driving into town, so I begged a lift to the place where many of them went yesterday for Lobster Roll. Duryea, the lobster place, is on the harbour on the west side of the island (the village is on the Atlantic, or east side of the island). Although it was only a little after 11, the restaurant was open (I wasn't even the only one there), and I ordered my lobster roll, and took a few pics while I waited.




My lobster roll arrived shortly. I had been given a choice of potato salad or chips (which meant crisps), and went with the former. I'm not sure I've had quite so much mayonnaise (in different forms) in one meal.


The coleslaw wasn't too bad, the cabbage had a tint of bitterness suggesting is wasn't super-fresh. The potato salad had quite an acidic dressing which was appealing at first, but quickly became too much. The lobster itself was good, a good amount of meat with some good sized chunks, but rather swamped with a lighter mayonnaise. I don't eat a lot of lobster, so I can't speak to its quality, but it tasted okay. The whole meal was certainly filling, and a little pricey ($22 incl tax) for a paper plate with a lot of mayonnaise. But, I've had a lobster roll, and in Montauk, no less.

I then walked along the beach for a bit - the stony beach shows the harbour is much more sheltered than the open ocean.


I didn't get very far along the beach, as I soon came across a sign declaring it to be private property.


I headed back to the road, and acquired a traveling companion in the form of a chocolate labradoodle. It had a collar, but clearly no sense of self-preservation whatsoever. This stupid dog kept wandering out onto the busy road, forcing cars to slow down and even stop. I could feel the filthy looks being directed at me, and I wanted to yell "It's. Not. My. Dog!"

Some way further on, some other people were milling around in a carpark at one of motel/accommodation type things, and the dog glommed on to them instead, to my very great relief. (They too were giving me the evil eye until my body language made it very clear that this was not an animal I had responsibility for.)

As I approached the village, I was in need of a toilet, and was very pleasantly astonished to find a public toilet, which was even open and in reasonable nick. (It was attached to a baseball field.) This is the very first public toilet I've seen in NY, let alone used.

I pottered around the village for a bit, conscientiously not buying anything - my bag was as full as my belly. A horde of Harley riders rode through town, several hundred of them, stopping anyone or anything from crossing the main road for half an hour as they trundled noisily through town.

I then wandered back to where we were staying, dropping down to the beach for a bit.


The water was now a deep blue-green, providing a glorious contrast to the paler sky, rather than the study in grey of yesterday. (The breeze was stiffer, so it felt cooler than yesterday despite the sun.)


The afternoon saw us sitting around chatting, with a few more departures (some had already left), with several people acquiring a distinctly pinkish hue.

We considered going to the posh place for dinner nearby, but discovered they had a private function on, and so were closed to the public. After much debate (naturally), particularly about the relative merits of eating in versus takeaway, and taxis versus some driving (and therefore not drinking), we eventually settled on a pub in town called O'Murphy's (Irish overkill, anyone), and rang to book give them fair warning of the horde of harpies about to descend upon them.

I chose some dumplings (gyoza) which were very good, with a thick soy chilli sauce, and some mussels from the appetizers menu. The main meals are confusingly called "entrees", so the entrees have to be called appetizers. The entree-sized meal was huge, and the "entrees" were even huger - most did not come close to finishing their meals.



We were loud, and possibly obnoxious, but we all ate and drank well, and they got a very generous tip from us, so I don't think they were too put out. It was a good thing to do for our last night together, and the driving debate was irrelevant as we had sufficient drivers electing to remain sober (enough).

We then stopped at John's Drive-In, which had fabulous milkshakes (according to those who'd had them earlier in the day) and a range of interesting ice cream flavours. I went with a single scoop of Mocha Almond Fudge (or something), which was excellent. Yet more chat and chortle when we got back. News was just breaking that Osama bin Laden had been killed just as I was heading to bed around 11pm.