Imagine sleeping at night with your windows and doors open, looking at the dark star filled sky, and hearing the waves crashing and smelling the clean fresh, salty air of the ocean. And you know all those times you have to wake up early for school or church and all those special things, and you hate doing it? Well, when you’re here, you can’t wait to get out of bed. You just get up bright and early because you are ready to start your day. You know you will have a fun awesome day!

Hey, my name is Ryan and I live on Long Island, New York. For all you readers who have been to New York and New York City, you’re probably familiar with more popular places such as the Empire State building, The Chrysler Building, Central Park, The Statue of Liberty and the amazing sports stadiums here. But a beautiful unfamiliar place in New York is Montauk, located in Long Island New York.

My title says “ Montauk, The End” because Montauk is the end of Long Island. You can’t go any further because all you’ll find after that is the Atlantic Ocean.  Montauk got its name from the Montaukett Indians. The lighthouse located at Montauk Point was the first Lighthouse in the New York State and is still the fourth oldest active lighthouse in the United States. Montauk is mostly a summer town but there are lots of things to do all year round.

I love Montauk for many reasons. Every summer I go there and I never get tired of it.

We stay in a hotel, which is right on the beach. We park the car and we don’t use it for the whole week because you don’t need a car. You  can walk everywhere. The hotel is great because it has an outdoor pool and your room is literally on the sand. When you open the sliding doors of the room, you step on your own private deck, which is on the sand. You can see the ocean right from your porch. The ocean is probably about 200 feet away.  Montauk is filled with lots of hotels to stay, or you also can have a summerhouse there.  

The town is another of my favorite parts.  It is not very big but the only part you’d probably need to know is that it has everything you need.  There is a lot of toy stores, candy stores, restaurants, clothing stores, supermarkets. It also has a movie theater, a miniature golf course with a beautiful lake where you can rent a sailboat or Kayack. There is a small shop called Fudge N’ stuff and every night it is always packed. They have the best candy and ice cream! There is also a great restaurant called “The Harvest”.  It has this gigantic lake with a long, narrow dock. You walk down the dock and you are allowed to feed the fish, ducks, and swan. (watch out for the swans, one almost nipped at my knee because I wasn’t feeding him fast enough.). I love this place because  you get to eat outdoors in this cool garden.

Outside the town there are farms where you can go horseback riding (although I haven’t done it yet. Maybe sometime soon my parents will let me try it.) A popular place to visit in Montauk is Gosman’s Dock.  You can go there to eat or to rent a boat to go fishing in the ocean. Montauk is famous for its commercial fishing and the surfing.

At night when you look at the beach, it is very dark  and all you can see is tons of bonfires all along the seashore.  The bon fires are one of the most peaceful parts of Montauk. Getting it started is not so peaceful though. First, you have to go the market and buy the wood. Then, you have to buy the matches and lighting fuel to start the fire (and you can’t forget the marshmallows!) When you get back you have to go down to the beach to dig the hole for the fire. Once you dig the hole, you have to mark your territory so that no one takes your hole. Now comes the easy and peaceful part, you just go down to the beach to start your bonfire.  Then you can sit down around the fire and listen to the crackling fire and soothing waves. And also roast your marshmallows (my personal favorite).

These are some of the reasons I love Montauk. If you ever have a chance to go there, I hope you have fun and enjoy Montauk’s amazing scenery and manys activities.