Ralph Waldo Emerson once wrote: “Though we travel the world over to find the beautiful, we must carry it with us or we find it not.”

Thankfully, I think we had pockets and bags and memories full of the beautiful today, because we found it everywhere we looked!  Never having been on Long Island before, we wanted to explore all that we could.  However, time does encroach on all that may be possible.  So, we opted for a side trip to Fire Island, a long coastal spit that experienced major damage during Hurricane Sandy.  Fire Island is the longest outer bank in the US that has no established road, and it is totally preserved in its natural state.  The weather was magnificent today and the pictures do not do justice to the beauty and grace that we found there!

Traveling on, we drove the entire length of Long Island and stopped in Orient, at the ferry dock, for a bite of lunch while we waited for the Cross Sound Ferry to carry us to New London, CT.  Lunch was extraordinarily good, and the 90 minute ferry ride was stunning – so much beauty surrounded us.

Docking in New London, CT on the Thames River, we found our way back to the highway and decided to end our day’s journey and rest in Warwick, RI.

It is true, traveling does not make the world beautiful.  But, traveling does help us to see different things and appreciate the many beautiful and spectacular views we can have while taking in sights that are new and different from any we have seen before. If we carry beauty with us, we will see it everywhere.

The same can be true of grace.