I’ve been going to the Hamptons every summer for about 15 years, but this year for the Fourth of July we decided to really make a vacation out of it and we went for 10 days.
In the past, we’ve pretty much just stayed at the house, hung by the pool, grilled on the deck, watched the sunset, and of course drank lots of Whispering Angel with an occasional very brief walk to the beach. However, now I have two babies so things are different and activities are needed to pass the time for them and keep me sane, because hanging at the house for 10 days with them would actually make me go completely insane.
Now that I’ve got your attention, I’ll tell you that our week did actually start out with just that – hanging at the house by the pool,
grilling on the deck, watching the sunset,
and drinking whispering angel. We didn’t even make it to the beach in those first few days because Marissa and I had a lot of friends over, so there was no reason to move the party to another location. Also, there was plenty of entertainment for my kids in the form of my friends and also some of their kids, so I even had time to take a shower while they were eating dinner.
We spent a lot of time in the pool with the kids over the weekend, and Eric made some awesome burgers, hot dogs, grilled chicken, and teriyaki chicken. Landen even played his first beer pong game. It was fun to just be with all of my favorite people in one of my favorite places.
After the friends (and sister and sister’s friends) left, the parents arrived for vacation part 2. This is when the activities began. We started off our week with a visit to Harbes Farm in Mattituck on the North Fork. FYI – access to the North Fork is only one of the reasons the western most Hamptons towns are superior to East Hampton and Montauk. Harbes farm and vineyard is one of the many farms and wineries/vineyards you can spend time at on the North Fork. I’ve done many vineyard trips, and I’ll write about that one day, but this trip was all about the kids.
Harbes is a giant outdoor playground for kids and I was sad that we had to leave for nap time. We definitely could have spent the whole day, or even a few days, there enjoying everything they have to offer. When you first enter, there is a little wooden duck race where you have to pump the water to get the ducks moving through the pipes. We couldn’t even break Landen away from this, and this was just the beginning.
When we finally got him to get up from the duck race, we ran around on one of the multiple playgrounds on the farm. We also climbed on a giant rope spider web.
Next was the chicken show, sandbox, and mini tractor riding area.
Then Eric took us all for a family tractor ride around the track.
Finally, the Jumbo Jumpers. Possibly Landen’s favorite activity that he has ever participated in. I’ve been to a few farms in the past with these things, and they’re sort of like giant rubber trampolines built into the ground. I think the only way to explain it is to show you. Text me if you want video.
This is not the Jumbo Jumper, but it’s an amazing picture of us walking to the Jumbo Jumper. 
Also not on the Jumbo Jumpers, but this is photo evidence of the only time in Landen’s two years and nine months that he asked for a stroller, right after jumping.
After the Jumbo Jumpers, we headed back to the entrance through the animal area where we were able to feed some goats, milk some (fake) cows, and play on some more tractors. At this point it was almost nap time, so after some animal fun we had a picnic lunch and headed home.
The day was amazing, and we didn’t even get to sports zone, life size foosball, or corn maze. It was a Monday, but on the weekends their winery is also open for tastings.
The next few days were pool and beach days. Joey is scared of the ocean, but she learned to love the sand. Landen loves all of it – sand castles, ocean, sea shells. He could probably spend days jumping off of sand ledges and digging with his sand shovel.
We also took the kids into Westhampton for a little playground time and lunch at Sydney’s. I have a lot of good lunch recommendations in Westhampton and Sydney’s would not necessarily be my first suggestion. It’s sort of like a counter service/market place, and the food is pretty good. But the owner is a NASTY human being who yells and curses at her employees, without fail, every time we’re there, and she couldn’t care less that I just walked in with a one year old and a two year old. Don’t get in her way. However, the town mostly opens at 11 and it was like 10:40 and we were too hot on the playground, and Sydney’s was open.
And then Friday rolled back around and we were up to weekend #2 of our trip. We started off with a morning outing to Safari Adventure in Riverhead. It’s not a safari by any means, but it is an adventure. It’s a mini arcade with huge climbing areas and bounce houses and slides. It quickly became Landen’s happy place. When he’s not asking me to go back to see the animals (Harbes), he asks me to go to the bouncy place. He actually just looked at a city skyline picture this morning and said “are those buildings all bouncy places?” That’s a true story.
That afternoon, we went back to the beach.
Wiped.
Saturday mornings in the hamptons are for the Farmer’s Markets. There are very few weekends that I’ve spent out there that I didn’t hit up the Westhampton Farmer’s Market, and this was no exception. I used to walk the four miles there every weekend, but that’s not really an option anymore with two tiny humans. It was still fun to walk around and get some samples though.
The rest of the weekend was spent with some grandparent time, pool time, and beach time. We’re happy to be home, but it was a really great 10 days. Joey didn’t really get it yet but Landen definitely loved every second of it. I’m almost ready to do some real traveling with them. We’ll see if I still feel that way after 16 days in Colorado in August.
TRAVELING WITH ARDEN 