Darrel and Tom walked along the trail through the sunken forrest on New York's Fire Island. They had both wanted to be there with a companion since long before they met at one of the city's more popular bars.
They had been dating by now for six months. Together they enjoyed Broadway musicals, chick flicks, dinner at high class restautants, dinner at small family style Italian restaurants and even workouts at the gym. For two men accustomed casual and meaningless sex the relationship was rapidly becoming serious. Their life together was far different than their separate bar to hotel room routines of earlier life.
"I've been looking forward to this for a long time."
"I hear ya," Darrel replied, "It's pretty here."
Both had launched highly successful careers. Darrel, age twenty five had become an economist at a major Manhattan firm. Tom, a more artistic type, had become an architect. The thirty year old could claim credit for a several appealing buildings.
The forrest is unique. High surrounding dunes create the allusion of placing it below sea level. It's trees consist of American holly, sassafras and shadblow. Roller coaster boardwalks allow visitors to walk or run over the miles of sand dunes.
The island is home or at least temporary stop over to 330 species of birds. Some of these include swans, geese, ducks, hawks and falcons. There are also herons, loons and grebes. For Tom, an avid bird watcher, it was perfect. He had identified specie after specie as he saw them.
A soft breeze came in from the ocean chilling the September air. The humidity was low making the the temperature a comfortable seventy.
Tom had been interested in photography since the days of 35 mm film cameras. Planning to create a bird brochure, he now aimed his 35 mm Canon digital SLR equipped with a 500 mm lens at the loon perched on a sassafras branch. The photo would appear along with another of that same bird taking flight.
Further along the trail he snapped more photos of the islands wild life. The white tail deer was perhaps thirty feet away nibbling at tall grass when the lens captured it.
Darrel had usually reserved picture taking for such functions as weddings, or other family gatherings. He preferred the simple point and shoot inexpensive digital camera. Lacking the magnification of Tom's SLR it left him to snap broad scenery photos. A vacation image of Tom standing against a big tree, was recorded for posterity.
Around noon they returned to the Corneille Estates rental home. It came at an outrageous price tag but in their opinion well worth it.
There was nothing like it in the city. Sliding doors opened on to ground level deck. Trees surrounded the natural wood shingled home. It's wood paneled rooms and paneled kitchen appealed to their sense of decor. A kitchen counter instead of a table was the only thing in common with a NYC apartment.
Tom had enjoyed cooking since he was a teen. Taking a dough from the refrigerator he began rolling it out. Less than a half hour later the end product was a pizza with Mozzarella cheese which they brought out to the deck and washed down with cheap beer.
