On Saturday, May 31st (my 26th birthday) I will be departing on a 9 day excursion to my favorite vacation spot I’ve ever been to… Cherry Grove, Fire Island. This will be the longest consecutive stay I’ve ever stayed there and I’m looking forward to it immensely.
I’ve started to look back upon my previous trips to Cherry Grove over the years and the older I’ve gotten I’ve started to appreciate it for different reasons. My first trip to cherry grove was the summer after my 21st birthday and 2 of my friends had offered to take me out there for an evening of fun. I wasn’t quite sure what to expect. I had thought that Fire Island was like long islands 20-something version of Disney pleasure island; a somewhat exclusive collection of restaurants, bars and nightclubs accessible only by ferry. This first trip out there proved to be pretty much just that. It was a great night, don’t get me wrong but it was kind of a lot of work for a few hours of fun. We packed ourselves into the car and drove about 45 minutes out to the Sayville ferry, then rode the ferry for the 20min boat ride to arrive in the grove around 6pm or so that night. My friends showed me around quickly as the sun was setting so I would have a gist of what it was all about then we started pounding back the drinks. We spent the next 4 hours or so drinking and dancing at the various establishments, grabbing a slice of pizza and then realizing we had lost the other friend we came with… We finally found him just in time to catch our boat home (thank goodness) and then we rode the boat and my friend drove us all home. Was this it? Was this the infamous Cherry Grove that I’d heard about? I woke up the next morning at my friend’s house with quite the hangover and even though I’d had fun the night before I knew there had to be more to this place than just an evening of bars, clubs drinking and dancing.
A few weeks later a group of friends asked if I wanted to go back with them to “spend the day in cherry grove” I was excited because now maybe I’d “get it” a little more, understand the hype and the fun that was to be had in this place. I remember we got off the boat around lunch time and had some food and a few cocktails at Cherry Lane Café. Cherry Lane Café for those of you who don’t know is an adorable little restaurant right on the bay, with second floor open air seating where you can watch the boats come and go from the dock.
After our lunch of buffalo wings, appetizers, beer and a few frozen cocktails we walked around admiring the houses in the town. Now I was starting to “get” cherry grove a little more. There were no cars, no bikes, no skateboards, rollerblades or anything like that. Everyone walks around everywhere, and the entire length of the community could be walked in less than 30 min. After our brief little walk around the community we met up with a friend of our friend who was renting a house for the week. It was a small house, very crowded, slightly cluttered and apparently there were like 6 different people staying in it for the week with only 2 bedrooms, a pull out couch in the living room, and one bathroom. The accommodations weren’t much, but it was a home base, a place to sleep, shower, keep everyone’s stuff etc. it seemed friendly, like a family… We said goodbye to our friends and spent the rest of the night drinking, dancing, and grabbing a slice of the delicious cherry grove pizza before we got on the ferry home for the night.
I remember riding on the top floor of the ferry home, even though it was dark, windy and with a chill in the air. We had had so much fun that day, made so many friends, and memories that we wouldn’t forget. I knew the key to truly enjoying the community would be to spend the night on Fire Island…
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