Hamptons Creative Group's Blog

Word of Mouth – August 23, 2011

What I Did on Summer Vacation Part II

Last time I hinted that part two of my summer vacation story would involve “hail storms and top-secret tomatoes.” Were you curious as to what I could possibly mean by that?

Well, read on!

Lady Liberty newly restored, I headed to up state New York to visit family. At least that was the initial plan. Mother Nature has her own summer plans, which that day included a hail storm wicked and wild enough to bring interstate traffic to a standstill.

In fact, two lanes on the highway shut down completely. It amazed me how, with the thousands of drivers that needed to pass through the single remaining lane, we were able to navigate as a unit. Taking turns merging into the funnel can cause quite a headache when someone tries to sneak ahead of the line. But, with the onslaught of ice balls from above, everyone played nice.

I was worried to see what kind of new dents Lady Liberty would sustain in the storm. Low and behold, she stood up just fine. It goes to show that when you take care of the things that drive you — whether that be literally like a car, or figuratively like your marketing goals or your family values — those things will protect you as well.

Safe and sound up state, the family and I decided to have a special lunch at the Culinary Institute of America (C.I.A.). We checked their website to see which of their eateries would be open and headed over to the campus. Wouldn’t you know it, it was the first day of their new trimester and students and families were swarming the grounds. In fact, to our dismay, all the great dining options were closed to the public that day!

So much for their website. It made me think about how people find information these days and the need for businesses to be consistently accurate 24/7. We decided to stroll the campus a little bit and ran into the groundskeeper. She was sympathetic to our misadventure and produced a freshly picked tomato.

This was no ordinary tomato. The groundskeeper gave it to me as a gift, and it has, dare I say, not changed one bit in two weeks. This tomato seems to be more of an invention of the C.I.A. in Washington D.C. than an organic fruit. Well, you never know who’s listening in these days!

I did get to participate in the 16th annual Ellen’s Run in Southampton this summer as well. The run supports the Ellen Hermanson Foundation, which provides breast cancer education, support and research. My Hamptons Creative Group team will also hit the sand for Have A Heart’s 4th Annual Beach Volleyball Bash at the end of the month. Have A Heart provides immediate relief to East End residents in times of crisis. We’re looking forward to sunshine and not hail for that event…

I’m not writing off summer yet! There’s still a whole month to go and a lot to enjoy. Tell me what YOU did this summer. Or, tell me what you didn’t get to do because you were too busy adjusting your marketing efforts when you could have been on vacation.