3The 2017-18 school year was one no member of The Chief will ever forget. The editorial staff became one of the closest friend groups, although there were some ups and downs. When the school year ended, we also met our new newspaper advisor.

In between our trips to Buffalo Wild Wings and the movies, we took a trip out to Ocean Beach on Fire Island to visit a staff member, Isa. On Sunday, August 5, we took a 10:10 a.m. boat out to the island to spend the day at the beach and catch up with each other.

Once at the beach, we set up our stuff and headed to the water. I prefer to be on land, so Mike, Isa, Billy, and Liam went into the water while Peter and I stood up to our knees in the water. That day, the beach flags were green, which meant the water was crowded with hot and sweaty beach goers.

Afterwards, we went into town to do some shopping and to get lunch at Town Pizza. We met up with some friends while walking and then made our way back to the beach to relax. Since it was so hot, we went back to the water, with once again Peter and I standing at a distance from the ocean, looking on.

Throughout the entire day, I had my camera out and ready to go to take pictures to capture the moments on the island, which no one was too keen about (I got some “good” ones of everyone). Since we had dinner at 6:30 p.m., we left the beach at around 5 to go back to Isa’s house to shower and get ready.

We headed to dinner at Maguire’s soon after. Our table overlooked the dock and the bay, and with the sun beginning to set it created a beautiful atmosphere. We sipped our Shirley Temples and ate an expensive, yet delicious, meal.

After dinner, craving dessert, we headed over to Scoop’s, the local ice cream place. At the recommendation of Isa, we almost all got chocolate moose tracks and ate it on the way back to the dock to grab our stuff for the boat. After many more pictures (some good and some bad) and an emotional goodbye, we boarded the boat and set off for Bay Shore.

We tried to get a seat near a window for a breeze, but everyone on the boat had the same thought and we sweated the whole way home. The whole boat ride, Mike, Billy, Liam, Peter, and I looked through and made fun of pictures we had of each other throughout the day.

Our trip to Fire Island was one none of us will ever forget, and hopefully it will become an annual trip for us all. We made lasting memories (“that’s a girls sweatshirt”), which with two close friends away at college, made the trip all the more special.