My best friend Kim swears my favorite movie is 'The Blue Lagoon.' Ok, I admit, it's true that I have watched it a half a dozen times or more over the years. But when you're 15 years old and the same age as Brooke Shields and she's frolicking on a tropical beach with a cute boy and I am stuck in a small town, on a farm in Georgia with boys who look nothing like Christopher Atkins, one can understand my emotional attachment. Kim would also tell you I am a huge fan of 'Far and Away' and yes, I have also watched that movie more times than I can count. I am sure that Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman would prefer that movie be removed from their list of credentials on IMDB because as many times as I have seen it, I still couldn't tell you what's going on in that movie.
'The Blue Lagoon' was filmed on Turtle Island on Fiji and 'Far and Away' was filmed on the Dingle Peninsula on the west coast of Ireland. Turtle Island is high on my list to visit and the Dingle Peninsula is one of my most favorite and most magical places I have ever been to. After almost 19 years of being a 'Stewardess', I am often asked what my favorite place is. There are a lot of places I love but Ireland and the Dingle Peninsula are always on the top of my list.
I think my 'watching movies, strictly for location' started when I was 13 and my grandparent's took me to see 'Summer of 42.' I loved that charming little beach house on a cliff, with a screened in front porch and a creaky old door, and how you could walk through a field of calla lilies to the local grocery store that had very pretty tomatoes in wooden baskets sitting outside the door. Before then, I thought people only had screened-in porches to keep the gnats away and the only reason anyone would walk to the grocery store is because they couldn't afford a car.
Not only was 'Summer of 42' filmed in Mendocino, California but it was also the home of Cabot Cove in 'Murder She Wrote.' I love Mendocino and have been several times; as many times as my mother and any friend would hop on a plane and go with me. The grocery store in the movie is still there and it has the same old beautiful hard wood floors as it did in the movie. And yes, there are still tomatoes in pretty wooden baskets sitting outside and a calla lilly field around the corner.
If you've never been to the Hamptons, it's not all glitzy and glamorous with lots of fancy cars cruising the streets. It's rather sleepy, but gorgeous homes and hedges, oh my, the hedges. The beaches and gardens are pristine and the shops are right off Madison Avenue, but my favorite is 'White's Drugstore,' an old fashioned non-chain drugstore that sells every favorite product I have ever owned; some I have flown to foreign countries to retrieve.
I figured the perfect time to go would be right after Labor Day, when the crowds were gone and the prices were down. There are three Inns that I would consider staying in. I researched them on every web site I could find to make sure we wouldn't be sitting at a big round table at breakfast asking a stranger to pass the salt. The 1st one I called said 'yes, we have 3 lovely rooms available. One is $695, one is $795 and we have a lovely suite for $1095.' I quickly told that
Innkeeper to let me get back to him as there might be some fighting over the $1095 room. Are you kidding me? I could have a suite at the Carlyle in New York City with my very old salt shaker.
I found a 'deal,' (if you call $250 a night a deal) at The Huntting Inn, my last choice but will forever be my first choice as I aspire to be a regular guest and on a first name basis with everyone who works there. My mother and Carol loved it too and I worried about them as they were enquiring about room service and what time the newspaper was delivered. The trade-off for them was that the Huntting Inn was home to the Palm Restaurant, which has got to be the loveliest, most charming Palm Restaurant in the country. They loved having a pre-dinner cocktail in the lounge on one of the sofas beside the baby grand piano with a cool breeze from an nearby open window. It was heaven.
We explored everywhere from Shelter Island, Montauk (yes, we found Bernie Madoff's beach house), Amagansett, to Sag Harbor. We ate fancy, (Nick and Toni's) and also at the local Lobster shack. I loved my lobster BLT at the American Hotel in Sag Harbor for lunch and think daily about my lobster corn chowder and wild truffle mushroom bolognese fettuccine from The Living Room at the Maidstone Inn.
After dinner each night and sometimes before dinner and sometimes both, we made our daily pilgrimage down Lily Pond Lane where it meets West End Road to visit Grey Gardens. We never got up the courage to drive up and around the half circle driveway even though there was no sign of life there.
It was the creepiest house at night as if Big Edie was standing guard out in the gardens somewhere with her cane while Little Edie was sliding down the bannister inside, singing some broadway tune in that unmistakable voice she had. Their presence at Grey Gardens is very real and their dreams have finally come true. Big Edie must be proud her beloved Grey Gardens has been preserved and Little Edie is finally famous after the HBO film about them won the 2009 Emmy for Outstanding TV Movie. The only light is a little one by the front steps that is barely visible from the road. I couldn't help but think what a huge light it represents as dreams really do come true.
Laura grew up in a small southern town in Georgia on a cotton and pecan farm where life centered around family, friends and good food. She has lived in Atlanta for 20 years and has been a Flight Attendant for a major airline for 18 years, traveling the world in search for the next best meal.