Hurricane Sandy Aftermath

On October 29th, 2012, Hurricane Sandy hit Catalina Beach Club in Atlantic Beach, NY. With all of the devastation in NY & NJ, the damage to Catalina really hit home. The club has been part of my family since 1944 ... way before I was born.

My cousins Helaine & Andrea went there a few days after the storm to take some pix. They did a great job!

Despite the devastation depicted below, they started rebuilding soon after Sandy hit. They'll be opening on Memorial Day for the 2013 season, their 69th year.

The southwest corner of the pool deck collapsed ...

but Oceanview was unharmed.

   
From main office to ocean

   
Court 2 cabanas

Court 1 cabanas

Busy Sunday

The movers finally show up with some of my stuff from NY ... 5 weeks late! I had 2 bikes & 14 boxes in their full truck.

On the way to the Home Show with Greg & Renee, we stopped at Greg's office. I got to see some great views of the city, lots of cool art & SteinMart's first cash register.

There's a great brick wall outside the convention center ... an awesome spot for portraits.

Greg & Renee ham it up at the Home Show.

For dinner, I made seared Ahi tuna & sesame snow pea fresh rolls. Fab.

September 11th

Today I dug out & wore a US Open t-shirt from 2001 that shows the World Trade Center in the NYC skyline. The towers collapsed the day after the US Open ended. I haven't worn the t-shirt since & just put it away thinking it was important to keep. Never forget.

Rob, Anna, Tyler & Hank came over to watch some tennis with Stella & me. Hank seems to be passed out. I'm not sure if it's from Stella, or watching the tennis ball fly back & forth over the net in high def.

After tennis, Rob cut down some palm fronds. Stella thought they were giant sticks for her & sliced both of my ankles dragging one over my feet. OUCH!!!

Royal Pains & Neiman Marcus at Catalina

There were 2 shoots today at Catalina. Sandy called early to let us know that Royal Pains started setting up at 4:30 am. There were lots of big production trucks & motorhomes in the parking lot when we arrived.

Evan & Hank run on the beach.

After they were done filming for the day, Mark Feuerstein (Dr Hank Lawson) came over & asked if we wanted to pose for pictures. He was so nice, as always. I think this is the 4th time I've watched them shoot at Catalina.

Andrea & Helaine both posed with Dr Hank.

Rob, whose flight luckily got canceled last night, also got to see the show's production.

I've always loved shooting Oceanview early in the morning, before the cabana boys open the doors. I'm gonna have to do something about the color of the 3rd cabana from the right on the 2nd floor, so they don't paint it the same weird color next year.

Neiman Marcus was shooting fashion for their upcoming catalog & advertising. They had a pretty cool setup. Their MacBookPro was on a tripod outside using a softbox as a hood & they had an iPad on a lightstand in the cafeteria. Everything was transmitted wirelessly so the pix could be reviewed in real time. They really should have had a ThinkTank Pixel Sunscreen™ v2.

There were a couple of cool rusty umbrella stands in Oceanview.

Don't even think of trespassing since there are new security cameras everywhere.

It was Rob's sixth visit to Ralph's in 5 days. I think he really liked it.

Annual Family Beach Party

It was a picture perfect day to have our party at Catalina.

There's always an itinerary.

Beach volleyball

Bobby & Howie ... one of 3 sets of twins at the party.

The Sandras ... Larry & Cal

It isn't easy to get over 60 people to look at the camera, but Rob pulled it off with a lot of help from Photoshop! ;-)

After dinner, over 60 relatives started singing!

Apparently, we were celebrating my "big" birthday that was in March.

The sunset was AMAZING!

Friday Dogs

Stella is staying with Anna, Tyler & her boyfriend Hank. They are SO in love! It's one big nonstop lovefest, lizard chase & playdate. Stella's gonna be exhausted when she comes home. Anna keeps me in the loop with pix & funny videos every day.

Howie brought Bailey (Stella's brother) over to my mom's house for a visit. He totally remembered me from his puppyhood & gave me an amazing greeting! I miss Stella so much!