Growing up in Northport, Long Island my favorite shops to peruse in Northport Harbor were The Surf Shop and Artisan House.  One shop sold beach wear and surf/snorkeling gear, in a space resembling a tiki bar.   The other place sold seashell wind chimes, and assorted coastal gifts featuring seagulls in a welcoming scented environment that you entered via a wooden framed glass door, that announced your arrival to the owner with the jingle of a  reindeer bell.  Hardly a visit home went by over the years without visiting these two installations of my coastal upbringing, until the owners of The Surf Shop bid us Northporters a fond farewell on their return to Hawaii.  I even bought my honeymoon beach wear from them!  The Artisan House is still my Northport landmark after marking its 49th year in business.

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During summers in high school I would relax on my bed laying on my stomach, flip flops falling where they may, ankles crossed in the air listening to music in between corded telephone (gasp!) calls with my friends.  The friend on the other end was usually snacking and paging through Long Island Newsday while navigating sibling interruptions and multitasking a conversation with me, while I on the other hand would be perusing the pages of Seventeen magazine.  My favorite part was looking at the travel ads in the very back pages, incredulous that the Caribbean Sea could be that beautiful color, a shade that certainly wasn’t a part of the Crayola color family I grew up with.  I thought for certain the photos were colorized for appeal, and so that began the pervasive nagging need to find out.