Animals!

Today, Abbey and I discovered one of the best-kept secrets in Long Island. Well, it's not really a secret, it's advertised on the side of the road with big letters on a bright orange sign: "Come feed our livestock!" We drove past it as we were checking out some of the north fork's vineyards, and curiosity caused us to turn around. At an empty farmer's stand that's probably jam-packed in the summer months, a sign asks for you to insert $2 in exact change in a plastic tube and then help yourself to a bag of corn kernels. Seconds after we stepped from the stand, bag of food in hand, we were spotted. Spotted by about 30 farm animals -- goats, sheep, horses, ducks -- who ran, or rather stampeded in our direction, every one of them hightailing it from the other side of the farm for the promise of snacks. If there hadn't been a fence in front of us, I would have been running just as fast back toward my car. We were like kids in a petting zoo. And goat spit and scary horse teeth aside, from now on a trip out east won't feel complete without stopping to feed our new friends.

Here they come!