Victoria’s Secrets: A Week of Bountiful Joy

There was something magical about last week with two glorious, sunny and warm Sundays, plus the extraordinary midweek celebration at the Dan’s Papers Power Women of the East End event.

I walked down the marina ramp on a sparkly Sunday morning located behind one of my favorite restaurants, Bell & Anchor in Sag Harbor, and I got onto my friend Roman’s boat.

Roman had invited Patrick Condren and me for a “last” ride of the summer. It was a picture-perfect day to go boating with the waters calm and the sun shining strongly. We went over to Shelter Island to have lunch at his favorite market in Dering Harbor.

Our destination was Marie Eiffel, a food market overlooking the harbor that makes Roman’s favorite sandwich, “The Cuban.” He said it was the tastiest sandwich he ever ate. And he was right!

Inside the sandwich, surrounded by a crispy roll, was a combination of shredded pork, cheese and a slice of ham that makes me salivate as I describe it to you. Consider me a new member of the “The Cuban” fan club!

Marie Eiffel has created a superb French bakery and catering business. She added a   clothing/home accessory shop across the street, where I found two shirts to buy.

The town also boasts a hardware and toy general store, but they all closed by 2 p.m., so I missed my chance to explore them.

After lunch, we walked up the hill to see The Chequit, the hotel my friend Stacey Soloviev recently bought and is renovating. The hotel sits on the edge of the picture-perfect tiny town on the harbor. What a sight!

I wanted to linger longer, but sadly it was time to return to the boat and head back to Sag Harbor. I wish time could have stood still.

Later in the week was the spectacularly successful Dan’s Papers Power Women of the East End event at The Muses in Southampton.

More than 250 people gathered to pay tribute to the diverse and wildly accomplished women in business, medicine, philanthropy and government. They proudly walked the red carpet to receive their “Vicki” statuette (Dan’s Papers’ equivalent to the Oscars statuette) from me, Vicki!

It warmed my heart to see so many happy people gathered together. And I was so proud of my event team that made it all happen!

Days later on Halloween Sunday, I had the privilege and fun to go to Manhattan with my sculptor friend Hans Van de Bovenkamp, my favorite acclaimed artist.

His Sculpture Farm, where he lives, is in Sagaponack,  but we met at Westhampton Beach’s Village Square, where Hans’ four magnificent sculptures are on display.

We were joined by Mayor Maria Moore and Deputy Mayor Ralph Urban, who thanked Hans for lending the town his unique sculptures for another year — but they are for sale!

We then departed for our drive to Manhattan to visit MoMA on 53rd Street. Luckily, the streets and traffic were both very quiet. During the drive in, I was so happy to see the brick and stone walls surrounding the LIE going toward the Midtown Tunnel were graffiti free! A huge change from my last visit!

When we arrived at MoMA and walked through the galleries, it was remarkable to me how Hans recognized the work of many of his friends, from Alexander Calder to Willem de Kooning to Larry Rivers to Jackson Pollock to Lee Krasner — he had known them all and shared details of their lives! How great it was to see the work of artists of the Hamptons at MoMA!

We took a break for a delicious lunch at MoMA’s outdoor cafe on their fifth floor overlooking the skyscrapers that were all around us. We had a bird’s-eye view of the architecture of our great city.

What a way to cap a glorious, celebratory eight-day week filled with bountiful joy!