Show & Tell Sunday: A Perfect Morning

Hey everyone! I know I haven't kept up on my word of posting more often but I hope that today's post will make up for it. It's only noon and I've already had the best morning I've had in a REALLY long time. As I'm sure a lot of you know or can tell, I haven't been feeling amazing lately... partially because of feeling yucky from allergies but mostly from anxiety and depression issues I have. On the heels of kind of an exciting epiphany I had this week of where I want to be and goals for my future I decided to get off my ass, take some damn Allegra and get outside.

My plan was to get up really early and make the 30ish minute trek out to Huntington to go to the Sunday Farmer's Market. It is one of my favorite drives on Long Island. To give you an idea of the area, I passed three of the Gold Coast Mansions between my house and the furthest destination. In addition, in a Scandinavian fascination frenzy last week I discovered that there is a Danish bakery 10 minutes past the Farmer's Market traveling on the same road so I figured what the hell, let's check it out! You know I love some good bread. So I left at 7:30 this morning and hit the Farmer's Market then traveled the extra 10 minutes to the bakery. It happened to be across the street from the marina in the town of Northport so I took a few pictures so you could see how amazing of a morning it was.

I'll show you those pics first:

This is probably my favorite picture of the day. The sky was so blue and gorgeous and it was so peaceful there. There were tons of boats in the marina and it was a beautiful view the whole way around. I should have taken a panoramic shot...

Looking in the complete opposite direction there are a few more boats and some really beautiful houses. The town was really small and very cute. Definitely a beautiful place to spend a Sunday morning.

There was also a park with a little gazebo, lots of tables and benches for picnicking by the water.

A kind of crappy picture of the bakery. There is outside seating so you can enjoy some treats and coffee with a gorgeous view of the marina. I'm really glad I decided to check it out.

After I went to the bakery I traveled back down the same road (25A for any curious New Yorkers) and stopped into Wild By Nature, a natural grocery store (kind of Whole Foodsesque I guess) on the opposite end of Main Street in Huntington that was on my way home. They have a lot of vegan options and I picked up much more than I was anticipating!!

I'm sure (or at least I'm hoping!) you are curious to see what I picked up on this excursion? Well, let's check out the haul! I took the pics on my phone, sorry about the crap quality. At least Instagram allows for some really great photo editing as you can see above but I did my best to make these presentable.

First, the Farmer's Market haul:

Truthfully, I've never really been impressed by the Long Island farmer's markets that I've been to. They are small and they only have one organic produce vendor. I was pleasantly surprised today! There was still only one organic produce vendor but they had more stocked than usual for this early in the season and everything was GORGEOUS. I got a HUGE head of Boston lettuce for salads and lettuce wraps, gorgeous strawberries and a bag of tuscan kale for juices and smoothies. The berries smell incredible and are super sweet and juicy.

New to the market this year was The Green Neveet. I was drawn in by the vegan sign :) She was so sweet and helpful. I believe she said she is a nutritionist and she sold a few different kinds of cookies, granola and hummus. I wasn't even going to sample the cookies but she just kept breaking off little pieces and handing me samples and I'm glad she did! In my first glance I immediately dismissed the sesame cookies because while I enjoy sesame, I'm not a huge fan of sesame cookies. I was immediately drawn to the coconut and luckily she let me sample it because I wasn't blown away by it. I also tried lemon (really fresh and beautiful), a chocolate mint one (also delicious), a raw cookie and the sesame. I was prepared to hate the sesame but I was blown away, it is delicious! It has almond flour, coconut oil, tahini, maple syrup, anise (I really can't believe I liked it, I am not a huge fan of anise either!), vanilla extract and baking soda. Really good, gluten free and all natural. Gotta love that!

I also tried the sun dried tomato hummus and it was absolutely incredible. Really smooth and creamy with a lovely flavor. I had to pick that up as well. I am so glad I wandered over to her table!

After I went to the Farmer's Market I continued along to the Copenhagen Bakery. It was really cute inside but it was crowded and I didn't really feel comfortable asking questions while there was such a huge crowd so I just settled on a loaf of bread. I don't know which products are authentic Danish products but I wish I knew which bread was. Maybe I'll try going back at a slower time to see if I can ask some questions.

I ended up with a gorgeous loaf of really dark pumpernickel. As you know, pumpernickel is my favorite :)

Finally, here is the Wild By Nature haul. I had gone in to grab some Tofutti for my pumpernickel and ended up grabbing a few more interesting things. I may be going to my brother's house for a BBQ tonight so I figured I'd make my life and everyone else's lives easy and grab this Bento Box for dinner. I've had it before and it's good. I also saw the Hail Merry tarts which I don't come across often and grabbed the Persian Lime flavor! I'm excited to try this, I've heard a lot of amazing reviews of the brand and these tarts. I also picked up Just Persimmons by the Just Tomatoes, Etc. brand (they make the freeze dried fruits and veggies, you've probably seen them at some point). I've never had a persimmon before and thought it would be a fun snack to try. Finally, I grabbed a cucumber to have for juicing, salads and lettuce wraps :)

After I got home I was starving and parched so I put my haul to good use and made breakfast. I had a huge jar of ice water to quench my thirst and enjoyed a pile of super sweet and juicy farmer's market strawberries alongside the ends of the pumpernickel (I love the ends) with some Tofutti. It was a perfect breakfast to cap off a gorgeous morning.

As you can see my morning started early but was really fun, invigorating and peaceful. I felt really happy to be out and enjoying the beautiful morning and finding new, fun foods to try. Being by the marina was really peaceful and was a nice break for me since things have been so crazy lately. And to think I did all of this by 10am! I'm an early bird for sure. The best part is that my weekend just started ;)

So there you have it, my absolutely perfect morning. I hope that you have all had a great weekend and enjoy the rest of your Sunday!

Gold Coast Mansions: Sands Point

Hello everyone. I'm here today with my first installment of my Gold Coast Mansion series. This series will be a collection of posts showing off the rich history of the Gold Coast, also known as the North Shore of Long Island. Today I'll be discussing The Sands Point Preserve (home to Castlegould and The Hempstead House) as well as the town of Sands Point in general.

It was easy for me to choose this first mansion and town because it holds a lot of personal memories for me. It is a place that I've been exploring for years and one of my favorite places to just drive around and take in the beauty, architecture and spectacular views. It is also the inspiration for the town of "East Egg" in The Great Gatsby, the book that inspired me to start this series in the first place. It seems like a no brainer that this would be the first stop of my Gold Coast tour.

This post will be a little bit different since you'll see a few parts of the town as well as the preserve since I have such a love for the whole area. I've recruited my friend Alex to join me in this journey and I'm so glad that she wanted to come with me because we had a great time!

All of the historical information that I will share was obtained from the literature I received upon arrival to the preserve. Also, apparently the tours of the estate occur Thursday through Sunday and our availability limits us to Mondays so we were kind of left to fend for ourselves so I was unable to ask questions and apparently missed out on one of the mansions.

Enough of my babbling, let's get started!

The Sands Point Preserve is what remains of a former Gold Coast estate built by Howard Gould, the son of railroad tycoon Jay Gould. In 1904, Gould completed Castlegould. Its architecture was inspired by Kilkenny Castle in Ireland.

This is Castlegould. It is the first building that you see when you enter the main portion of the preserve. It is a massive and striking building, clearly resembling an old castle. It was intended to be the main estate but the Goulds did not like it and build a second estate on the property.

Here is a wider view of Castlegould. Believe it or not, this is the smaller building and would go on to house the stables and become the servants quarters.

This is the back of the Hempstead House, the main residence of Howard Gould. It was completed in 1912 and was considered one of the most lavish and extravagant estates on the Gold Coast. 

*Note - I apologize for not getting a full on front view of the Hempstead House but they seemed to be getting ready for an event that day and there were trucks blocking the front.

This sign appears behind the house and I just thought it was interesting. 

This is the back garden area of the house. It is surrounded by the gorgeous stone wall that you can see bordering the garden in the picture and has a beautiful view of the water. The detail is really stunning in person.

This is the water view from the Hempstead House. It overlooks the Long Island Sound and Hempstead Bay, hence the name. As you can see, we had an absolutely perfect day.

This is the side of the Hempstead House and unfortunately the closest I could get to the front. It is built in a Tudor Manor style has a granite and Indiana limestone exterior. It is 225 feet long, 135 feet wide, has three floors, 40 rooms and an 80 foot tower.

Another side view of the home. Following Howard Gould's divorce, the Estate was purchased by Daniel Guggenheim in 1917. He was the third Guggenheim to own property in Sands Point and he was the one to give the main residence the name The Hempstead House.

Guggenheim gifted 90 acres of the Estate to his son and new daughter in law in 1923, where they built a Normandy style house on the bluffs overlooking the Long Island Sound. They called it "Falaise," which is the French word for cliff. I did not get to see Falaise and I'm not sure if that is part of the tour but I will try my best to get back on a weekend to see if I can get a few pictures of it for you.

The Preserve also boasts many beautiful nature trails that take you through the woods and down to the water front. Due to my severe seasonal allergies I was unable to bear the thought of walking through the woods but I will make that part of my mission for when I return.

After passing hands several times, upon the death of Harry Guggenheim most of the 90 acre estate was deeded to Nassau County for use as a museum site and is now known as the Sands Point Preserve.

As I mentioned earlier in this post, I chose Sands Point because I do have a personal connection to it. I don't know if this is a "Long Island thing" but in high school and when I was on break from college my friends and I would get together for the evening to get dinner and coffee. The night would ALWAYS be capped off by a multiple hour drive around Long Island to our favorite locations and Sands Point was a weekly stop for us. We had discovered that following the curve at the end of the road would bring us one of the most beautiful views we could ever imagine. I always felt like I was in on a secret and we would drive there every single time we got together. You'll see why in just a minute.

One of my favorite things about the town of Sands Point is the eclectic architecture of all of the houses. You'll find every style of house you can imagine, one more grand and opulent than the next. The waterfront views are unbeatable and I could spend all of the time in the world driving around and looking at the area. The house pictured above is my absolute favorite in the town. I love its almost gothic and medieval vibe, the view is incredible and those spikes on the surrounding wall are so different and intimidating. It is definitely my dream home and I love passing by and taking a look at it. It also looks really spooky at night which is really fun.

This structure is located directly across the street from the house pictured above. This is located in someone's side yard I believe. It's hard to tell what belongs to whom but I'm pretty sure this the side yard. It is such an interesting structure because if it belongs to the house I'm thinking of it is a completely different style than the architecture of the main house. It looks really cool nonetheless.

I love the feel and vibe of this little area and I'm not going to lie, I've wanted to do a photo shoot over here for ages. It would be a great place for an engagement shoot with the right couple ;)

This is not a great picture but I love the detail of the fence surrounding this little side yard. It reminds me of giant chain mail and I thought it was so unique.

This is another gorgeous house located in Sands Point and sits directly across from the view I was mentioning above. The home is huge and my favorite feature is the double wraparound balcony/patio on the top and bottom levels of the house. If you are in the market for a new home and love the look of this house, you are in luck! It is currently on the market and you only have to fork over $13 MILLION. ;) It is so beautiful, and what makes it even more special and stunning is the view.

(Special note about this photo - Alex took this photo. Poor thing was practically hanging out of the window as I was rolling the car, ha! She got a great shot, thanks for being a trooper in my crazy adventure! In all fairness though I was practically hanging out of the window getting the picture of the house across the street)

This is what you see when you look directly across from that gorgeous mansion. It is hard to tell because it was a little hazy on the horizon that day, but this beautiful house overlooks the water (I believe the Long Island Sound but I'm not 100% sure) and has an amazing view of the city. Imagine coming around a curve in the road at night and being treated to this view of a beautifully lit New York City over the water. I feel so lucky to know about this spot and to be able to go there whenever I want. When it is warm out and I don't want to be at home I'll sometimes just drive down to this spot to get out of the house and enjoy a beautiful day. It is so special to me and I love it so much.

So this is it for my first post in my Gold Coast Series! I apologize for not getting the pictures of the nature trails and of Falaise, but I promise I will try to get back on a day where they are doing tours and when my allergies have calmed down a bit. So I guess there will eventually be a part two of my Sands Point post.

I hope you enjoyed my photo tour of the Sands Point Preserve and the town of Sands Point. I am so excited to have more adventures and show you more of the Gold Coast. Funny enough, I worked my first wedding in a long time yesterday and we happened to go to the Estate that I was planning on going to next! I got to scope it all out and get re-acquainted with it and it is a beautiful and completely different property from the preserve and I look forward to going back soon! I've also been debating filming a driving tour of the town so you can get a really good idea of what I see when I drive this road but I would have to work out the logistics of that. Is it something that you would want to see?

Have a great weekend!